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THE LIFE 



PUBLIC SERVICES AND SELECT SPEECHES 



RUTHERFORD B. HAYES 



J. Q. HOWARD 









CINCINNATI 

ROBERT CLARKE & 

1876 



Entered according to Act ol Congress, in the year 1S76, by 

ROBERT CLARKE & CO. 
Tn the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 

Stereotyped by Ogden, Campbell & Co., Cincinnati. 



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A\* 



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CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

ANCESTRY. 

Line of Descent — Family Tradition— Indian Fighters— Grandfather 
Eutherford — Chloe Smith Hayes — Father and Mother — Charac- 
teristics — Tribute to a Sister — General Character of Ancestors. 9 

CHAPTER II. 

BOYHOOD AND EDUCATION. 

Birthplace — University — Springs — Kossuth's Allusion — Early In- 
structors — Sent East — College Life — Began the Study of Law — 
At Harvard Law School — Story, Greenleaf, Webster, Agassiz, 
and Longfellow — Admission to Bar 15 

CHAPTER III. 

AT THE BAR. 

Commences Practice — First Case — Partnership with Ralph P. Buck- 
land — Settles in Cincinnati — Becoming Known — Literary Club — 
Nancy Farrer Case — Summons Case — Marriage — Law Partners — 
City Solicitor 22 

CHAPTER IV. 

IN THE FIELD. 

Appointed Major — Judge Advocate — Lieutenant-Colonel — South 
Mountain — Wounded — Fighting while Down — After Morgan — 
Battle of Cloyd Mountain — Charge up the Mountain — Enemy's 
Works Carried by Storm — First Battle of Winchester — Berry- 

ville 31 

(iii) 



IV CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER V. 

FROM MAJOR TO MAJOR-GENERAL. 

Opcquan — Morass — First Over — Intrepidity — Official Reports — As- 
sault on Fisher's Hill — Battle of Cedar Creek — Commands a 
Division — Promoted on Field — His Wounds — A Hundred Days 
under Fire 43 

CHAPTER VI. 

IN CONGRESS. 

Nomination — Refuses to Leave Army — Election Incident — Election — 
Course in Congress — Services on Library Committee — Votes on 
Various Questions — Submits Plan of Constitutional Amend- 
ments — Re-nominated by Acclamation — Re-elected by Increased 
Majority — Overwhelmed with Soldiers' Letters — Character as 
Congressman 51 

CHAPTER VII. 

ELECTED GOVERNOR OF OHIO. 

Party of States Rights — Their Convention — Platform — Nomination 
of Thurman — Republican Convention and Platform — Nomina- 
tion of General Hayes — Opening Speech at Lebanon — Thur- 
man at "Waverly — National Interest Aroused — Hayes Victori- 
ous — Inaugural — First Annual Message — Second Annual Mes- 
sage 62 

CHAPTER VIII. 

SECOND ELECTION AS GOVERNOR. 

Re-nomination — Democratic Platform — Nomination of Rosecrans — 
Declines— Pendleton Nominated — Hayes at "Wilmington — Elec- 
tion — Second Inaugural — Civil Service Reform — Short Ad- 
dresses — Letters — Annual Message — Democratic Estimate of It — 
Davidson Fountain Address — Message of 1872 — Work Accom- 
plished 90 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTE11 IX. 

THIRD TIME ELECTED GOVERNOR. 

The Senatorship Declined — Army Banquet Speech — Third Time 
Nominated for Congress — Glendale Speech — Declines a Federal 
Office — Making a Home — Nomination for Governor — Platform — 
Serenade Speech — Democratic Convention and Platform — Marion 
Speech of Hayes — Woodford — Grosvenor — Schurz Inflation 
Drivel — Interest in the Contest — Honest Money Triumphant — 
Third Inaugural 124 

CHAPTEE X. 

NOMINATION TO THE PRESIDENCY. 

Early Suggestions — Letters on Subject — Garfield Letter — Action of 
State Convention — Cincinnati Convention — Course of his Ericnds 
— First and Second Day's Events — Speech of Noyes — Balloting — 
Nominated on Seventh Ballot — Officially Notified — Habits — Per- 
sonal Appearance — Family — Letter of Acceptance — Character 
as a Soldier, Magistrate, and Man — Domestic Surroundings.. 143 

APPENDIX. 

I. Speech at Lebanon, Ohio, August 5, 1867 1G7 

II. Speech at Sidney, Ohio, September 4, 1867 202 

III. Speech on his Re-nomination, June 23, 1869 222 

IV. Speech at Zanesville, Ohio, August 24, 1871 231 

V. Speech at Marion, Ohio, July 31, 1875 241 

VI. Speech at Fremont, June 25, 1876. 



LIFE 



RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 



CHAPTER I. 

ANCESTRY. 

Line of Descent — Family Tradition — Indian Fighters — 
Grandfather Rutherford — Chloe Smith Hayes — Father 
and Mother — Characteristics — Tributes to a Sister — 
General Character of Ancestors. 

George Hayes, of Scotland, came to America by 
the way of England, and settled at Windsor, in the 
Colony of Connecticut, in 1682. He married, in 1683, 
Abigail Dibble, who was born on Long Island in 1666. 
From these ancestors the direct line of descent to 
the Republican candidate for President of the United 
States is the following : 

George Hayes, Abigail Dibble. 

Daniel Hayes, Sarah Lee. 

Ezekiel Hayes, Rebecca Russell. 

Rutherford Hayes, Chloe Smith. 

Rutherford Hayes, Sophia Birchard. 

The earlier family traditions connect the name and 
descent of George Hayes Avith the righting plowman 

(9) 



10 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

mentioned in Scottish history, who at Loncarty, in 
Perthshire, turned back the invaders of his country, 
in a narrow pass, with the sole aid of his own valor- 
ous sons. 

"Full your plow and harrow to pieces, and tight," 
said the sturdy Scotchman to his sons. They fought, 
father and sons together, and won. A like com- 
mand seems to have come down the centuries to an 
American-born son — " Tear your briefs and petitions 
to pieces, and fight." lie also fought, and, though 
sorely wounded, won. Shall the crown of valor be 
withheld by a free people that was once bestowed by 
a Scottish king? 

Daniel Hayes, the third of the ten children of 
George Hayes, was born at Windsor, in 1686. At 
the age of twenty-three, while fighting in defense of 
Simsbury — now Granby — to which town his father's 
family had removed, he was captured and carried oft* 
by the French and Indians. He was held as a pris- 
oner in Canada for five years, and being a young 
man of great physical strength and vigor, the Indians 
adopted him as one of their race. His freedom was 
finalty purchased through the intervention of a French- 
man, the colonial assembly of Connecticut, sitting at 
New Haven, having made an appropriation of public 
funds in aid of that specific purpose. An account of 
the captivity of this early defender of New England 
homes is found in Phelps' " History of Simsbury, 
Granby, and Canton." The wife of Daniel Hayes 
was the daughter of John Lee. who was noted for 
his bravery in fighting Indians. 

Captain Ezekiel Hayes, who gained his title in the 
military service of the Colonics, married the great- 



ANCESTRY. 11 



granddaughter of the Rev. John Russell, the famous 
preacher of Wctherstield and Hadley, who concealed 
the regicides at Hadley for many years. 

Rutherford Hayes, the grandfather of the subject 
of our biography, was born at New Haven, Connecti- 
cut, July 29, 1756. He married, in 1779, at AV^ost 
Brattl.eboro, Vermont — whither he had removed the 
year before — Chloe Smith, whose ancestry till a large 
space in the " History of Hadley," several of whom 
lost their lives while fighting in defense their own and 
neighboring towns. From this fortunate and happy 
union, which continued unbroken for fifty-eight years, 
have sprung a race of accomplished women and honor- 
deserving men. One daughter married the Hon. John 
Noyes, of New Hampshire, who served in Congress 
1817-19, and died in 1841, at Putney, Vermont. A 
daughter of this marriage is the mother of Larkin G. 
Meade, the sculptor, whose sister is the wife of "William 
D. Howells, the novelist, and present editor of the 
Atlantic Monthly. Another daughter of Rutherford 
and Chloe Smith Hayes married the Hon. Samuel 
Elliott, of Vermont, who attained distinction in Con- 
gress and as an author. 

In a diary still existing, kept by Chloe Smith Hayes 
when she was eighty years of age, are found evidences 
of this good woman's intellectual cleverness and vigor, 
and abounding proofs of her fruit-bearing piety and 
affectionate tenderness for her offspring and kindred. 
At this advanced age she seems a philosophical ob- 
server of natural phenomena and political events — 
minutely describing eclipses, floods, and storms — and, 
while moralizing over the inauguration and death of 
President Harrison, giving expression to the shadowy 



12 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. II AYES. 



hope that wise and good men would take the helm of 
government, and, rebuked by the presence of death, 
be taught the lesson of mortalit}^. Rutherford, the 
grandfather, bore the commission, dated 1782, of Gov- 
ernor George Clinton as an officer in the military ser- 
vice of the State of New York. 

Rutherford Hayes, the father of Governor R. B. 
Hayes, was born at West Brattleboro, Vermont, Jan- 
nnary 4, 1787. On the 19th day of September, 1813, 
he was married, at Wilmington, Vermont, to Sophia 
Birchard, daughter of Roger Birchard and Drusilla 
Austin Birchard, of that place. The Birchards had 
emigrated from England to Saybrook and Norwich, 
Vermont, as early as 1635. They soon became men 
of note in Norwich and Lebanon, and many of their 
descendants have continued to be men of mark since 
that time. The family has had representatives in Con- 
gress from Illinois and Wisconsin, and noted mem- 
bers of it in the pulpit in New York and elsewhere. 

Rutherford Hayes v^as engaged in business as a 
merchant at Dnmmerston, Vermont, until 1817, in 
which year he removed to Delaware, Ohio, with Ins 
family, consisting at the time of a wife and two chil- 
dren. In January, 1820, a daughter — Fanny — was 
born, and in October of the following year, a daughter, 
at the age of four, w r as lost. In July, 1822, Ruther- 
ford Hayes, the father, died of malarial fever, at the 
age of thirt} T -five; and on the 4th of the following 
October was born Rutherford Birchard Hayes, the 
since distinguished son. Three years later, the wid- 
owed mother was called to suffer a most distressing 
calamity in the death, by drowning, of Lorenzo, aged 
ten, a hopeful and helpful SOI] 



ANCESTRY. 13 



The father of Governor Hayes was a quick, bright, 
accurate, active business man. lie possessed both en- 
ergy and executive ability. He had the independence 
which intelligence gives, and his dry humor served 
him well in exposing shams and exploding humbugs. 
He was rigidly honest, and was, in the words of one 
of his neighbors, " as good a citizen as ever lived in 
the town of Delaware." He could do a great deal of 
work, and do it well. He was a witty, social, popular 
man, who made warm friends and few enemies. 

The mother of Governor Hayes united force of 
character with sweetness of nature. Her self-reliant 
energy is shown by her making a trip, in the summer 
of 1824, to Vermont and back — a distance of sixteen 
hundred miles. The journey had to be performed by 
stage, and consumed two months in going and return- 
ing. She made a second journey to New England when 
Rutherford was nine years old. Her amiability of dis- 
position made her the favorite guest at the homes of 
her neighbors. The straightened circumstances of a 
family deprived of its head required the aid of industry 
and economy. She was known, in village parlance, 
as a " good manager." Afflictions which would have 
made perfect a more faulty character purified her 
own. She died in Columbus, Ohio, October 30, 18G6, 
at the age of seventy-four. She had been a consistent 
member of the Presbyterian Church for fifty years. > 

Mrs. William A. Piatt, the sister of Governor Hayes, 
who died July 16, 1856, at the age of thirty-six, was 
a lady whose virtues and good deeds are enduring 
memories in Columbus homes. The Hon. Aaron F. 
Perry, of Cincinnati, in a public address, made this 
allusion to her worth : " Mrs. Piatt, in the prime of 



14 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

a happy womanhood, passed beautifully away ; not a 
white hair on her head, not a wrinkle on her brow, 
not a cloud upon her hopes; but in the full maturity 
of life and love she has gone where life and hap- 
piness are perfected." He whose character it is our 
duty to make known reflects this tender light from 
two lives : " She loved me as an only sister loves a 
brother whom she imagines almost perfect, and I loved 
her as an only brother loves a sister who is perfect. 
Let me be just and truthful, wise and pure and good 
for her sake. How often I think of her ! I read of 
the death of any one worthy of love, and she is in 
my thoughts. I see — but all things high and holy 
remind me of her." 

The conclusions which we draw from the examina- 
tion of the records of the ancestral descent of Ruth- 
erford B. Hayes are, that his progenitors have in each 
generation displayed courage and capacity to fight 
limited only by the strength of the enemy to hold out. 
It was a habit they had to fight on the side in the 
right, and on the side that won. Three of his imme- 
diate ancestors — Elias Birchard, Israel Smith, and 
Daniel Austin — gave proofs of valor and patriotism 
in the War of Independence. Another characteristic 
of the Hayes stock is the almost uniform tendency 
toward longevity. It is a robust race, presenting an 
extraordinary number of large families. The divine 
injunction to increase and multiply has been obeyed 
with religious fidelity. Upon the whole, the stock is 
good, and bids fair to become better. As men suffer 
discredit from disreputable progenitors, they ought to 
enjoy credit from reputable ancestors. 



BOYHOOD AND EDUCATION. 15 



CHAPTER II. 

BOYnOOD AND EDUCATION. 

Birth-place — University — Springs — Kossuth's Allusion — 
Early Instructors— Sent East — College Life — Began 
the Study of Laic — At Harvard Law School — Story, 
Greenleaf, Webster, Agassiz, and Longfellow — Admis- 
sion to the Bar. 

The town of Delaware, the county seat of the 
county of Delaware, is located near the center of 
Ohio, twenty -five miles northwest of Columbus. It is a 
prosperous place of seven thousand people, the most 
of whom live in comfortable-looking, newly-built 
homes, and has been hitherto chiefly known for 
its University and its Springs. The Ohio Wesleyan 
University is the most flourishing literary institution 
of the great Methodist denomination in the West. 
The White Sulphur Spring is a fountain of healing 
and happiness to the whole region around, and is 
regarded with added interest since Kossuth came to 
drink of its waters, and, in reply to a welcoming 
address, eloquently said, that "out of the Delaware 
Springs of American sympathy he would fill a cup of 
health for his bleeding Hungary." 

Three scpiares from these Springs, near the center 
of the town, and in a two-story brick house on Will- 
iam street, Rutherford Birchard Hayes was born. 
This has long been Delaware's pride, and will be its 
fame. The income of his widowed mother, who was 



16 LIFE OF F.UTHERFORD B. IIAYES. 

bereft of lier husband four mouths before her sou's 
birth, was derived from the rent of a good farm lying 
two miles north of Delaware, on the east side of the 
Whetstone. This income, used with frugality, ena- 
bled her to commence the education of her children. 
They were sent first to the ordinary schools of the town. 
The first teacher who enlisted the affections of her 
since distinguished pupil was Mrs. Joan Murray, a 
most worthy woman, whose funeral Governor Hayes 
quite recently attended. lie began the study of the 
Latin and Greek languages with Judge Sherman 
Finch, a good classical scholar and a good lawyer, of 
Delaware, who had been at one time a tutor in Yale 
College. Judge Finch heard the recitations of his 
pupil in his office at intervals of leisure from the 
duties of his profession. The pupil taught his sister 
each day what his instructor taught him. 

Through the agency of his uncle, Sardis Birchard, 
his guardian, who at this time took charge of his 
education, Rutherford was sent to an academy at 
ISTorwalk, Ohio. Here he remained one year under 
the instruction of the Rev. Mr. Chapman, a Methodist 
clergyman of scholarly attainments. In the fall of 
1887, to complete his preparation for college, he was 
sent to quite a noted school at Middletown, Connec- 
ticut, kept by Isaac Webb. Mr. "Webb, being a grad- 
uate of Yale, made a specialty of preparing students 
for admission to Y'ale College. His scholars came 
from every part of the United States. In one year, 
his Ohio pupil's preparatory course was completed. 
The character established by him at this school is 
made known in the concluding portion of a commcud- 



BOYHOOD AND EDUCATION. 17 

atory letter addressed by Isaac Webb, his instructor, 
to Mrs. Sophia Hayes, which reads : 

"The conduct of your son has hitherto done 'honor 
to his mother,' and has secured our sincere respect and 
esteem. I hope and trust that he will continue to be 
a great source of happiness to you." 

The first prize for proficiency in Latin, Greek, and 
Arithmetic was awarded at this academy to " Ii. B. 
Hayes." 

In the fall of 1838, at the age of sixteen, young 
Hayes entered Kenyon College, Ohio, after passing 
satisfactorily the usual examination for admission. 
This institution is situated forty miles north of Co- 
lumbus, in the village of Gambier, which is celebrated 
for the secluded beauty of its lawns and groves. The 
College was founded by Bishop Chase, with funds col- 
lected by him in England, the principal donors being 
Lord Gambier and Lord Kenyon. The institution was 
long under the fostering care of Bishop Mcllvaine of 
blessed memory. 

Young Hayes excelled as a debater in the literary 
societies and in all the college studies ; but his tastes 
especially ran to logic, mental and moral philosophy, 
and mathematics. In the words of a college mate, 
now a very distinguished lawyer, he was remarkable 
in college for ' ; great common sense in his personal 
conduct; never uttered a profane word; behaved al- 
ways like a considerate, mature man." In the lan- 
guage of another able member of the legal profession, 
who followed after him at Kenyon : " Hayes had left 
a memory which was a fascination, a glowing mem- 
ory ; he was popular, magnanimous, manly ; was a 
noble, chivalrous fellow, of great promise." 



18 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

On the general points of character, conduct, and 
scholarship, it is conclusive to say that, when gradu- 
ation-day came, Rutherford B. Hayes was found to 
have been awarded the valedictory, which was the 
highest honor the faculty could bestow upon a mem- 
ber of his class. Although the youngest in years, he 
was found the oldest in knowledge. In three journals 
published in August, 1842, the month and year of his 
graduation, we find exceptionally warm commenda- 
tions of his valedictory oration. The Mt. Vernon 
Democratic Banner said: "All who heard this ora- 
tion pronounced it the best, in every point of view, 
ever delivered on the hill at Gambier." 

In the class with Governor Hayes were Lorin An- 
drews, afterward President of the College, who fell in 
the war for the Union, and the- Hon. Guy M. Bryan, 
late member of Congress, and present speaker of the 
Texas House of Representatives, who, although en- 
gaged in the rebellion, has paid a manly tribute to 
his College classmate since the presidential nomina- 
tion. 

In other college classes at the same time were Stan- 
ley Matthews, now one of the ablest lawyers in the 
United States ; Hon. Joseph McCorkle and Hon. R. 
E. Trowbridge, afterward members of Congress from 
California and Michigan respectively ; and Christopher 
P. "Wolcott, who subsequently filled with high distinc- 
tion the office of attorney-general of Ohio, and was 
also assistant secretary of war. 

Kenyon College and its graduates bestowed addi- 
tional honors upon the valedictorian of the class of 
1842. In 1845, he was invited back by the faculty to 
take the second degree, and deliver what is known 



BOYHOOD AND EDUCATION. 19 

as the Master's oration. Ho was invited also by the 
alumni to deliver the annual address before them, 
both in 1851 and in 1853. All these honors he mod- 
estly declined. 

Soon after graduating, Mr. Hayes began the study 
of the law in the office of Thomas Sparrow, of Colum- 
bus. Mr. Sparrow w T as a lawyer of high standing, 
whose integrity was proverbial. Although a Demo- 
crat in politics, he was regarded by his political ad- 
versaries as the purest of pure men. This worthy 
instructor certifies to the "great diligence" and "good 
moral character" of his student on the latter's depart- 
ure to attend a course of law lectures at Harvard. A 
taste for the legal profession had been very earty de- 
veloped by young Hayes. The proceedings of courts 
had possessed to him in boyhood peculiar interest. 

Judge Ebenezer Lane, long a Justice of the Supreme 
Court of Ohio, an intimate associate of Sardis Bir- 
chard, the patron uncle, had early turned the thoughts 
of the guardian of the nephew in the direction of the 
law. 

Rutherford B. Hayes entered the law school of 
Harvard University, August 22, 1843, and finished 
the course of lectures, January 8, 1845. The law in- 
stitution was at this time under the charge of Mr. 
Justice Story, whose eminence as a jurist is only sur- 
passed by that of his bosom friend, the great Chief 
Justice, John Marshall. He enjoyed the friendship 
and counsel of Story, and also that of Prof. Simon 
Greenleaf, who bears testimony to his diligence, ex- 
emplary conduct, and demeanor. He kept a minute 
record, still preserved, of all the trials and proceedings 
of the moot courts, presided over by Professors Green- 



20 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

leaf and Story, and pages of authorities are cited 
where "It. B. Hayes" appears as counsel for the fic- 
titious plaintiff or defendant. It might have been safely 
assumed that a young man of his quick perceptions 
while in the atmosphere of Boston would make the 
most of his opportunities and advantages. He at- 
tended the lectures of Prof. Longfellow on the lit- 
erature of foreign languages. He profited by the 
lecture-room talks of the great scientist, Agassiz, upon 
the grand theme of nature. Watching his opportuni- 
ties, he heard Webster deliver his model arguments 
before juries, and his great political speeches in Fan- 
euil Hall. He visited John Quincy Adams at his 
home in Quincy, with a party of his fellow-students, 
who, when he learned that some of his visitors were 
from Ohio, read to them a part of an address Mr. Ad- 
ams was about to deliver on the laying of the corner- 
stone of the Observatory on Mt. Adams, near Cincin- 
nati. 

He renewed and prosecuted with ardor the study of 
the French and German languages, both of which 
he now translates with ease, and speaks the former 
with reasonable fluency. 

Leaving with regret the classic shades of Cambridge, 
and parting from fellow-students such as George 
Hoadly, Manning F. Force, and the since famous ora- 
tor, J. B. L. Curry, of Alabama, he returned to Ohio 
an educated young man. He was fitted for the battle 
of life which he has since so courageously fought, 
so far as America can afford facilities for procuring a 
complete, symmetrical education. Impatient to begin 
the struggle in his profession, he proceeded to Mari- 
etta, where the ambulatory Supreme Court of Ohio 



BOYHOOD AND EDUCATION. 21 

was then sitting, and having passed before an examin- 
ing committee, composed of Messrs. Hart, Gardiner, 
Bnel, and Robinson, was duly admitted to practice in 
the courts of the State as attorney and counsellor at 
law. The certificate of admission, which is dated 
March 10, 1845, has so good a name attached to it as 
that of Thomas AY. Ewart, clerk. The Plymouth of 
the AYest had therefore the honor of welcoming to the 
bar the rising son of the AYest. 



22 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 



CHAPTER III. 

AT THE BAR. 

Commences Practice — First Case — Partnership with 
Ralph P. Buckland — Settles in Cincinnati — Becoming 
Known — Literary Club — Nancy Farrer Case — Sum- 
mons' Case — Marriage — Law Partners — City Solicitor. 

The young lawyer, 11. B. Hayes, full of hopefulness 
and ambition, commenced the practice of the law at 
Lower Sandusky, now Fremont, Sandusky county, 
Ohio. This growing town of Northern Ohio was se- 
lected because it was the home of the uncle whose ex- 
tensive business connections would naturally throw 
more or less law business into the nephew's hands. 

His first case was one against a sheriffs sureties, the 
sheriff having become insolvent. There were five or 
six bondsmen, who employed as many different law- 
yers, who of course made a fierce fight to protect the 
pockets of their clients. The pleadings were difficult 
under the old practice, and the slightest technical de- 
fect in them would adriotly be taken advantage of by 
the defendants' attorneys. But so accurately had the 
pleadings been drawn, and so well had the case been 
worked up by the young lawyer, that no flaw could 
be found, and his suit was at all points successful. 

After this success he had a good run of office busi- 
ness, and was employed both in the defense and prose- 
cution of criminals. In April, 1846, he entered into 
a law-partnership with Ralph P. Buckland, an older 



AT THE BAR. 23 



practitioner in good practice. Mr. Buckland subse- 
quently became a conspicuous member of the Ohio 
Senate, and a gallant officer of the rank of brigadier- 
general in the war. He became a member also of the 
Thirty-ninth Congress. 

One of the most important cases tried by Hayes 
while a member of this firm was an action to prevent 
or enjoin the building of a railway bridge across the 
Bay of Sandusky, on the ground of its obstructing 
navigation. The cause was tried before Judge Mc- 
Lean, in the United States District Court at Cincin- 
nati. Thomas Ewing, who was one of the opposing 
counsel in the case, continued to compliment Hayes 
during life for this maiden effort in a United States 
Court. 

In November, 1848, in consequence of bleeding at 
the lungs and other alarming admonitions of failing 
health, Mr. Hayes left Fremont to pass a winter with 
his friend, Guy M. Bryan, in Texas. A half year of 
boating, fishing, hunting, and scouring the prairies 
brought about a physical revolution. He came back 
as sound as a dollar — that is, a coin dollar — and has 
so remained ever since. 

In December, 1849, he put in execution a design for 
some time contemplated, and on Christmas eve ar- 
rived in Cincinnati. He had consulted professional 
friends in Cincinnati about seeking the stimulus of a 
wider field for permanent occupation, and was doubt- 
less influenced somewhat by the advice received. One 
who had been with him at Harvard wrote: "I have 
not flattered the face of man or woman for years, but 
I think honestly that the R. B. Hayes whom I knew 
four years ago would be sure to succeed at this bar, 



24 LIFE OP RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

if he can afford to live and wait.'' Another profes- 
sional brother, on terms of intimacy, wrote : " With 
your energies, talents, education, and address, you are 
green — verdant as grass — to stay in a country village." 
On the 8th of January, 1850, the new candidate for 
public and professional favor took possession of an 
office on the south side of Third street, between Main 
and Sycamore, opposite the Ilenrie House. His office 
companion was John W. Herron, with whose appear- 
ance and manners the new comer seems to have been 
well pleased. The first year in Cincinnati brought 
little professional business, but no day was passed in 
idleness. His studies were systematic, and his read- 
ing comprehensive in both law and literature. Shakes- 
peare, Burke, Webster, and Emerson were his insepa- 
rable companions. He sought to widen the circle of 
his acquaintances, and add daily to the number of his 
friends. Having been a member of the order of Odd- 
Fellows and Sons of Temperance in Fremont, he 
united again with those organizations in Cincinnati. 
The addresses he was invited to deliver at Odd- 
Fellow's lodges and at many more public places were 
very numerous. In this way he made reputation as a 
public speaker, if not money. He was not only be- 
coming known, but becoming favorably known. 

The widely renowned literary club of Cincinnati, 
which he joined in 1850, and of which he remained 
an active member for eleven years, awakened his so- 
cial sympathies and ardent interest. To the reading 
of essays, and to the discussions on political, social, 
and moral questions, he always listened, and in the 
latter often took part. In debate, he was strong, 
eager, clear, and logical, lie had an aptitude at see- 



AT THE BAR. 25 



ing principles and getting at the kernel of questions. 
Among those who during these years participated in 
the social or literary entertainments of the club-room 
were Chief Justice Chase, Thomas Corwin, Thomas 
Ewing, father and son, General Pope, General Edward 
F. Noyes, Stanley Matthews, M. D. Conway, Man- 
ning F. Force, W. K. Rogers, John W. Ilerron, 
D. Thew Wright, Isaac Collins, Charles P. James, 
R. D. Mussey, and many others of ability and 
distinction. In January, 1852, the opportunity for 
"getting a start" in his professional career came. 
"While making a sensible, energetic little speech in 
behalf of a criminal indicted for grand larceny, named 
Cunningham, he attracted the attention and won the 
commendation of Judge Ii. B. Warden, then president 
judge of the criminal court, who thereupon appointed 
the modest } r oung attorney counsel for Nancy Farrer, 
whose case became the great criminal case of the 
term, if not of the times. 

Nancy Farrer had poisoned all the members of two 
families. She had a bad countenance, a sinister, re- 
volting look. It is not strange that she should have 
been considered by the court and jury that tried her, 
and by the entire public, a qualified candidate for the 
gallows. Hayes, in defending his client, had to con- 
tend against the passious, the indignation of the pub- 
lic, and the predispositions and prejudices of judge 
and jury. The judge who tried the case was not the 
one who appointed the comparatively unknown attor- 
ney as counsel. Hayes saw instinctively the immense 
importance of the case, and knew intuitively that a 
crisis had come in his career. He set laboriously to 
work to establish an impregnable line of defense. 



26 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

He found on examination of* the proofs that the 
supposed murderess was totally irresponsible, because 
of hereditary idiocy and insanity. Her father had I 
died of drunkenness in a Cincinnati hospital, and her 
mother went about under the insane hallucination that 
she was a prophetess. Nancy's conduct and conver- 
sations while employed in the wholesale poisoning 
business showed that she had no moral comprehen- 
sion of what she was about. But the plea of insanity 
had been so often and so vehemently pressed in de- 
fense of prisoners who were sane that it seemed to be 
of no avail in defense of one who was not. The cry 
of insanity, like that of " wolf," had been so repeat- 
edly raised when there was no insanity, that it was 
not heeded when there was. Notwithstanding an ar- 
gument which for legal learning and forensic eloquence 
attracted the attention of the press and bar, and es- 
tablished the counsel's reputation, the poor, insane 
idiot was convicted of murder in the first decree. 
Hayes at once obtained a writ of error, which the 
district court reserved for decision in the Supreme 
Court of the State. The case was argued and deter- 
mined in that court at the December term, 185o, and 
reported in 2 Ohio St. Reports. R. B. Hayes appeared 
for plaintiff in error, and George E. Pugh, attorney- 
general for the State. The earnest and determined 
advocate of Nancy Farrer carried his points, obtained 
a new trial, and greatly enhanced his professional 
reputation. The then official reporter of the Supreme 
Court of Ohio, who heard this argument, says : " It 
was a truly admirable effort, and the peroration was 
indescribably pathetic. But on this occasion, as on 
all others, Mr. Hayes was singularly modest." Al- 



AT THE BAR. 27 



though a new trial was granted, through the concur- 
ring- opinions of Justices Corwin, Thurman, and Rau- 
ney, Nancy Fairer was never again tried. She was 
sent to a lunatic asylum. 

Hayes next gained reputation through his connec- 
tion with the notorious James Summons murder case. 
He was employed by the older counsel in the case to 
take notes of the testimony and record the rulings 
of the court. The trial occupying many days and 
many differences arising between counsel with respect 
to the rulings of the court, it was found that the ac- 
curacy of the notes of the junior attorney was in 
every instance confirmed by the court itself. When 
the time came for the final arguments to begin, the 
leading counsel asked each a day for each side. Judge 
Thurman, then presiding, on consultation with Judge 
Piatt, announced that the court could only give the 
leading counsel two hours each, but that they would 
allow Mr. Hayes one hour additional. Notwithstand- 
ing the court was assured that Mr. Hayes was not 
strictly employed in the case, Judges Thurman, Mat- 
thews, and Piatt insisted upon hearing him, and he 
was accordingly heard. His unpremeditated argument 
was clear, convincing, impassioned, and impressive. 
It was one of the best speeches of his life. The case 
went up to the Supreme Court with the junior as the 
leading counsel. 

We now reach an event in the course of this nar- 
rative, which, controlling as is the influence it has upon 
all lives, has been immeasurably potent in its influ- 
ence upon the life and fortunes of Governor Hayes. 

On the 30th of December, 1852, he was married to 
Miss Lucy W. Webb, by Prof. L. D. McCabo, of the 



28 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

Ohio Wesleyan University. The marriage took place 
at No. 141 Sixth street, Cincinnati, the bride's home, id 
the presence of about forty friends. Lucy Ware 
Webb was the daughter of Dr. James Webb andlj 
Maria Cook Webb. Dr. Webb was a popular gentle- 
man and successful practicing physician in Chilli- 
cothe, Ohio. In 1833, he died of cholera in Lexing- 
ton, Kentucky, where he had gone to complete ar- 
rangements for sending to Liberia slaves set free by, 
himself and his father. The grandfather of Mrs. Dr., 
Webb was Lieutenant-Colonel Cook, who in 1777 was- 
serving in a regiment commanded by Colonel Andrew 
Ward, in the army of the Revolution. Both Gov- 
ernor and Mrs. Hayes are, therefore, descendants ot 
soldiers of the Revolution, most worthily uniting in 
their lineage jointly the dawn of the second century 
with the dawn of the first. The six years following 
1852 were years of full practice and exacting labors, 
in which disappointments were few and successes 
many. These were years in which solid foundations 
were laid- for as solid a reputation as it was possible 
for the men among whom he moved to build up. 

In January, 1854, he formed a law-partnership with 
R. M. Corwine and W. K. Rogers, under the firm 
name of Corwine, Hayes & Rogers. This proved a 
partnership of friendship as well as business, being in 
ever}' way satisfactory and agreeable. Mr. Rogers 
is uow the close companion of his old partner in these 
later and more eventful years. Mr. Corwine died a 
resident of Washington City, a year or two since. 

In April, 1859, he was, without solicitation, chosen 
city solicitor by the city council of Cincinnati, to fill 
the vacancy caused by the death of Judge Hart, and 



AT THE BAH. 29 



on the 9th of that month entered upon the discharge 
of his official duties. His chief competitor for this 
office was Caleb B. Smith, since a member of Mr. 
Lincoln's cabinet. The vote in the city council on 
the first ballot was : Mr. Smith, 13 ; Mr. Disney, 12 ; 
Mr. Hayes, 3. On the seventh ballot, Mr. Hayes had 
17; Mr. Ware, 12, and Mr. Disney, 3. On the thir- 
teenth ballot, Mr. Hayes was declared elected, having 
receive 18 votes to Mr. Ware's 14. His election was 
due to the vote of Mr. Toohey, a Democratic council- 
man of the Thirteenth Ward. The election of Hayes 
to his first office was most favorably, received. 

The Cincinnati Commercial, of December 9, 1858, 
said : " R. B. Hayes, Esq., one of the most honest 
and capable young lawyers of the city, was elected 
city solicitor last night by the city council to fill the 
vacancy occasioned by the death of Judge Hart. It 
would have been very difficult to have made any other 
selection of a solicitor equally excellent and as gen- 
erally satisfactory." 

The Cincinnati Enquirer, of the same date, said : 
" Mr. Hayes, the city solicitor elect, is a lawyer of good 
acquirements and reputation, and is well qualified for 
the position." 

Charles Reemelin, in a letter to the New York 
Evening Post, wrote : " I know of no young man in 
our city of higher promise than Mr. Hayes, and we 
hope for him a bright future." 

The estimate of the people seemed to correspond 
with that of the press, for in the following spring he 
was elected to the office to which he had been appointed 
by a majority of two thousand five hundred and 



30 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

thirty-six on the popular vote. His Democratic oppo- 
nent was W. T. Forrest. 

lie filled the office of corporation counsel for three: 
years, during which time, as legal adviser of the mu- 
nicipal government of a great city, he passed judg- 
ment upon questions involving large interests, and 
discharged with high fidelity the duties of an im- 
portant trust. As city solicitor, the opinion which 
perhaps aroused the most general attention and inter- 
est, was one delivered in February, 1859, denying the 
right of the city council to contract debts for water- 
works purposes, without additional authority from 
the General Assembly. He was opposed to the in- 
crease of taxation and creation of new debts, on prin- 
ciple. In April, 1861, in common with the entire 
Republican ticket, he was defeated for re-election as 
city solicitor. His vote, however, was larger than 
that of any candidate on his ticket. He had suffered 
a similar defeat in the fall of 185G, when a candi- 
date for Common Pleas Judge, his party being in a 
decided minority in Hamilton county. Had the elec- 
tion of 1861 occurred two weeks later, when the great 
uprising came with the fall of Sumter, the Republican 
Avar ticket, not the Democratic compromise ticket, 
would have carried the day. 



IN THE FIELD. 31 



CHAPTER IV. 

IN THE FIELD. 

Appointed Major — Judge Advocate — Lieutenant- Colonel 
— South Mountain — Wounded — Fighting while Down 
— After Morgan — Battle of Cloyd Mountain — Charge 
up the Mountain — Enemy's Works Carried by Storm 
— First Battle of Winchester — Bcrryville. 

That a loyal citizen of the antecedents, ardent patri- 
otism, and impulsive nature of Rutherford B. Hayes 
would enter the army in the war for the Union, was to 
be looked for as a thing of course. He had been in the 
habit of obeying every call of duty, and could not 
therefore disobe}^ when duty called loudest. He re- 
garded the war waged for the supremacy of the con- 
stitution and the laws as a just and necessary war, 
and preferred to go into it if he knew he " was to die 
or be killed in the course of it." He had been a most 
earnest advocate of the election of Mr. Lincoln to the 
Presidency, and had been an anti-slavery man of es v 
tablished convictions long before the candidacy of Fre- 
mont for the Presidency. He did not think the 
Union should be destroyed to make slavery perpetual. 
He desired to mitigate and tinally eradicate that evil. 
He had prayed for the election of General Harrison 
for the sake of the country ; he had cast his first vote 
for Henry Clay, his second for General Taylor, and 
his third for General Scott. But the old Whig party 
having ceased to be a living organization, he gave his 
whole heart to the Republican party and its cause, 



32 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

and by political speeches, and in other ways, helped !■ 
forward the movement in favor of equality of rights 
and laws. The insult to the flag at Fort Sumterr 
aroused to the intensest pitch the patriotic indig- 
nation of a united North. At a great mass-meeting' 
held in Cincinnati, R. B. Hayes was selected to give 
expression to the loyal voice, by being made chair- 
man of the public committee on resolutions. It is 
not needful to add that these resolutions had all the 
fire and intensity of the popular feeling. The knowl- 
edge that it was his purpose to enter the Union army 
having reached Governor Dennison, that officer ap- 
pointed Hayes major of the Twenty-third Ohio Vol- 
unteer Infantry, June 7, 1861. With this appoint- 
ment was coupled the appointments of W. S. Rose- 
crans as colonel, and Stanley Matthews as lieutenant- 
colonel of the same regiment. Colonel Rosecrans, 
with the other field-officers, had just set to work or- 
ganizing the new regiment, when Rosecrans was ap- 
pointed brigadier-general, and ordered to take com- 
mand of the Ohio troops moving in the direction of 
Western Virginia. Upon the promotion of Rose- 
crans, Colonel E. P. Scammon, an officer of military 
education, was placed in command of the Twenty- 
third. 

After a brief period of discipline at Camp Chase the 
regiment was ordered, on the 25th of July, to Clarks- 
burgh, West Virginia, and on the 29th went into 
camp at Weston. We shall not follow it in this or in 
subsequent campaigns, in its marching, scouting, skir- 
mishing, or counter-marching. It is enough to say, 
that in this first campaign it assisted in clearing the 



IN THE FIELD. 33 



whole mountainous region of Western Virginia of a 
formidable enemy. 

Major Hayes was appointed by General Rosecrans, 
on the 19th of September, 18C1, judge advocate of the 
department of Ohio, the duties of which service he 
discharged about two months. He received his first 
promotion, to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, October 
24, 1861. Passing over less important events, we 
come to the first serious battle in which he was 
engaged. 

THE BATTLE OF SOUTH MOUNTAIN 

Was fought on Sunday, September 14, 1862, a beauti- 
ful, bright September day. The enemy were in pos- 
session of the crest of the mountain, where the old 
National road crossed it. The army of McClellan, 
with Burnside in advance, were pressing up that 
mountain by the National road as its center. General 
Cox's division of Burnside's corps was in advance. 
The brigade to which Lieutenant-colonel Hayes was 
attached was in advance of the division. His regi- 
ment was in advance of the brigade. He was ordered 
to pass up a mountain path on the left of the National 
road and feel for the enemy, advancing until he struck 
him; to push him up the mountain if he could; in 
short, to open the engagement. Lieutenant-colonel 
Hayes pushed into the woods, came upon the enemy's 
pickets, received their fire, and drove them in. lie 
Boon saw a strong force of the enemy coming toward 
the line of his advance from a neighboring hill, and 
went to meet them. Hayes charged into that force 
with a regimental yell, and, after a fierce fight, drove 
them out of the woods in which he found them, into 
an open field near the summit. He then drove them 



34 LIFE OP RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

across the field, losing many men and capturing and 
killing many of the enemy. 

Hayes, having jnst given the command for a third 
charge, felt a stunning blow, and found that a large 
musket ball had struck his left arm above the elbow, 
carrying away and badly fracturing the entire bone. 
Fearing an artery might be severed, he asked a 
soldier to bandage his arm above the elbow, and 
a few minutes after, through exhaustion, he fell. 
Recovering from a state of unconsciousness while 
down, in a few moments, and observing that his men 
had fallen back to the woods for shelter, he sprang to 
his feet, and, with unusual vehemence, ordered them 
to come forward, which they did. He continued 
fighting some time at the head of his men ; but fall- 
ing a second time, from exhausted strength, he kept 
on giving orders, while down, to fight it out. 

Major Comly, the second in command, then came 
to him to learn the orders under which the regiment 
was fighting, and deeming it best to assume com- 
mand, owing to the critical condition of Lieutenant- 
colonel Hayes, gave orders that the wounded hero 
should be carried from the field. In an almost 
illegible narrative, written with the loft hand just 
after the battle, we find this modest record, by the 
intrepid sufferer in this event: "While I was down 
I had considerable talk with a wounded Confederate 
lying near me. I gave him messages for my wife and 
friends in case I should not get up. We were right 
jolly and friendly. It was by no means an unpleas- 
ant experience." 

The enemy in this action continued to pour a 
most destructive fire of musketry, grape, and canis- 



IN THE FIELD. 35 

ter into the Union ranks. Lieutenant-colonel Hayes 
again made his appearance on the field with his 
wound half dressed, and fought until carried off. 
Soon after, the rest of the brigade coming up, a brill- 
iant bayonet charge up the hill dislodged the enemy 
and drove him into the woods beyond. The Twenty- 
third regiment in this engagement lost within eight 
men of half the entire force engaged. 

South Mountain is inscribed on all the standards of 
this gallant regiment, and surrounds with a sad halo 
of glory the names of the living and the graves of 
the dead. 

At the time this battle was fought, Lieutenant- 
Colonel Hayes was not under pay, having been mus- 
tered out of the Twenty-third regiment to take com- 
mand of the Seventy-ninth. His wound preventing 
him from becoming colonel of the Seventy-ninth, he 
was, on the 24th of October, 1862, appointed colonel 
of his own regiment, vice Scammon, promoted. It 
was while at home recovering from his wounds that 
his wealthy uncle, Sardis Birchard, urged Colonel 
Hayes, to whom he was devotedly attached, to leave 
the army, on the ground that he had done his share, 
promising to himself and family abundant support; 
but he would not listen to the suggestion, and before 
his wounds were healed went back. 

AFTER JOHN MORGAN. 

In July, 1863, while Colonel Hayes, under superior 
officers and in connection with other forces, was en- 
gaged in skirmishing, scouting, and harassing the 
enemy in Southwestern Virginia, an episode occurred 
which illustrates his force and decision of character 



36 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

and energy in action. Happening to ride to Fayette- 
ville, a distance of fifteen miles from camp, to learn 
the news, he was startled by the telegraph operator 
with the intelligence that John Morgan was in Ohio, 
and was at that moment making for Gallipolis to 
recross the Ohio river. Here was a cry of help from 
home. His own State invaded, and his own friends 
and kindred in danger! His decision was instan- 
taneous to go to the rescue. He sent over the wires 
to his adjutant, then at Charleston, the message : " Are 
there any steamboats at Charleston?" And being in- 
formed there were two, he instantly ordered them to 
be sent to Luke creek, the highest navigable point on 
the Kanawha. Colonel Hayes then galloped back to 
camp, and, after bringing all his powers of persuasion 
to bear, succeeded in gettiug permission to take two 
regiments and a section of artillery, and go in pursuit 
of Morgan. In thirty minutes after the orders were 
read to the soldiers, the column was on its march. 
The road was mountainous, the darkness dense, the 
route almost impassable, but the Kanawha river was 
reached at the break of day. The steamers were both 
in sight, and on these the eager men and the artillery 
were embarked. By daylight the next morning this 
timely succor was at Gallipolis. That town was saved 
from a rebel raid, and the hot pursuit of John Morgan 
commenced. Warned by spies, he had turned his re- 
treat in the direction of Pomeroy. Hayes re-embarked 
his force, and steamed up after him. Again disem- 
barking his men, Hayes came in collision with the 
raider, who retreated after getting a taste of the qual- 
ity of his adversary. But Morgan being beset on all 
sides was forced to surrender, and was made a prisoner 



IN THE FIELD. 37 



with many of his men. Their next raiding was done 
from the inside to the outside of the walls of the Ohio 
penitentiary. 

BATTLE OF CLOYD MOUNTAIN. 

In the spring of 1864, General Crook moved with 
an army of about six thousand men to cut the main 
lines of communication between Richmond and the 
great Southwest. In this expedition Colonel Hayes 
commanded a brigade. General Crook, who is called 
"Gray Fox" by the warriors of Sitting Bull, is one 
of the shrewdest generals in the world in the way of 
tricking an enemy. On this expedition he marched 
np the Kanawha, and sent his music and one regiment 
toward the White Sulphur Springs, while his army 
went the other way. He charged his music to make 
noise enough for an army of ten thousand. The en- 
emy, who were fortified on the road by which Crook's 
army was actually to pass, left Fort Breckinridge, and 
marched off fifty or sixty miles in the direction that 
Crook's band of music had gone. His army- then 
hurried on, and marched right into the fort without 
firing a shot. To have taken it without stratagem 
would have cost much delay and many lives. In the 
meantime, the enemy hurried back, and, collecting an 
army under General Jenkins, fortified a position on 
the crest of Cloyd mountain. The base of the moun- 
tain was skirted with a stream of water two or three 
feet deep, and the approach to it was through a meadow 
five or six hundred yards wide. The enemy, who 
were strongly intrenched, opened upon Crook's force 
so soon as it reached the road that was within range 



38 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

of their artillery. It was evident the fortifications 
could not be carried without very determined fight- 
ing. A small force, after making a stout struggle, 
dropped back repulsed. Crook ordered Colonel Hayes' 
brigade to cross Cloyd's meadow, charge up the hill, 
and take the batteries. Hayes formed in the edge of 
the woods, and marched out with as perfect a line as 
ever was formed on parade. He moved on, and was 
soon under fire. The enemy opened heavily, bring- 
ing down men along the whole line. A slow double- 
quick was ordered, the alignments being kept good 
until the edge of the woods was reached. 

The fortifications could not be seen. There was 
only in sight a woody hill, and below it a stream to 
cross. Hayes, the brigade following, dashed through 
the creek to the foot of the last hill, which was so 
steep that the cannon could not be depressed suffi- 
ciently to damage them. After halting for a minute 
to take breath, the brigade charged, with a terrific 
yell, up the hill. The instant they passed the curve 
of the hill, as fearful a fire met them as men are ever 
called to face. The whole line seemed falling, officers 
and men going down by scores. But not a man 
stopped ; all who were not hit went on. Hayes 
shouted to his men to push on to the enemy's works. 
They were carried by assault, many of the enemy 
being bayoneted beneath ingenious barricades that 
they deemed impregnable. The enemy were killed 
or driven out, and their cannon captured. For ten 
minutes it was a desperate, give-and-take, rough- 
and-tumble fight. The artillerymen attempted to re- 
load when the assaulting party was not ten paces 
distant. The enemy retreated to a second ridge of 



IN THE FIELD. 39 



the mountain, and made a determined effort to form 
a line, but the pursuit was too hot for the effort to he 
successful. Reinforcements arriving, they endeavored 
to make a third stand, but were easily driven off in full 
retreat. Thus ended the battle on the mountain, where 
the enemy's fort on its summit was carried by storm. 

BATTLE OF WINCHESTER. 

What is known as the first battle of Winchester, 
fought July 24, 1864, illustrates the pluck and endur- 
ance of Hayes under disaster. Here, as in the last 
battle, he commanded a brigade in a division of Gen- 
eral Crook's army, of West Virginia. Two brigades, 
under Colonel Mulligan and Colonel Hayes, were or- 
dered to go out and meet what was supposed to be a 
reconnoisance in force of the enemy. Hayes was 
ordered to join his right on Mulligan's left, and 
charge with him. They were to attack whatever there 
was in front. They could see only two skirmish lines 
in front. Hayes soon saw appearances of the enemy 
off' on the left. Mulligan was informed there were 
signs of an enemy forward on the right. Indications 
were correct. The enemy were coming down upon 
them in overpowering force on both flanks and in 
front. Mulligan said his orders were to go forward, 
and he was going forward. Hayes thought it was as 
well to go forward as to go any other way, as there 
could be but one result. Soon after charging, the 
enemy opened a deadly fire with artillery on the left 
flank, and infantry close in front. In five minutes 
Colonel Mulligan fell, pierced with five balls. The 
enemy had double the force in front, and overlapped 
the right flank a quarter of a mile. This was a better 



40 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD E. HAYES. 

place to be out of than in. The lines melted away 
under the destructive tire. The deafening roar of ar- 
tillery and musketry prevented all commands from 
being heard. The Hayes brigade fell slowly back to 
a hid inaccessible to cavalry. There it formed, and 
held back the yelling pursuers. At this point Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Comly was wounded. The cavalry, 
whose failure to furnish information of the presence 
of the enemy had brought oh the disaster, had disap- 
peared from the scene. Colonel Hayes' brigade, which 
was exposed to the cavalry of the enemy, marched in 
a half square, lighting steadily in front and on both 
Hanks. Once the brigade was concealed in a belt of 
woods until the enemy's cavalry came within pistol- 
shot, when the whole line suddenly rose and poured its 
fire into their ranks. After that, the pursuit ceased. 
From morning until midnight, Colonel Hayes, having 
lost his horse, was fighting and encouraging his men 
on foot, saving his command from annihilation, and 
displaying personal bravery of the highest order. 

BATTLE OF BERRYVILLE. 

This was one of the fiercest fights of the war. It 
was between a South Carolina and Mississippi division, 
under General Kershaw, and six regiments of the 
Kanawha division. 

The occasion of this battle was this : Sheridan sent 
a body of cavalry to get in the rear of Early's army 
and cut oft' his supplies. To do this there were two 
roads up the pike — one through Winchester and one 
ten miles east of Winchester. Ten miles east of this 
place, through Bcrryville, was the enemy's headquar- 



IN THE FIELD. 41 



ters, and Sheridan's object was to throw a force past 
them which would turn and strike them in the rear. 
In order to protect that body so that it could get back 
again — not be cut oft' on its line of retreat — Crook 
was ordered to take possession of the pike where the 
road from Winchester crosses it. The enemy, under- 
standing the plan, moved to take possession of the 
same crossing. They first attacked with a small force, 
and were driven back. Being reinforced, thej 7 drove 
back in turn the regiments in advance of the Union 
force. Colonel Hayes had a line a quarter of a mile 
long sheltered behind a. terrace wall, the ground in 
front being level with the top of the wall. He sat on 
his horse watching the tumultuous advance of the 
enemy. The Union advance lines, being driven back 
in precipitate retreat, ran right over Hayes' brigade. 
The enemy followed close on their heels. Hayes let 
them get within two rods, when the whole brigade 
rose, and with a yell delivered a deadly volley at the 
enemy's legs. They then jumped upon the terrace 
and charged bayonet, driving the pursuing enemy 
back like a flock of sheep. He pushed them to their 
second or reserve lines, where they rallied at dark, 
and stubbornly maintained their ground. 

Colonel Hayes' brigade went at double quick pace 
into action, their leader at the head of the column. 
The Twenty -third and Thirty-sixth Ohio, and the 
Fifth and Thirteenth Virginia, constituted at this 
time his brigade. From dark until almost ten o'clock 
the cannonading was continuous and the fighting ter- 
rible. Hayes, although never more exposed to dan- 
ger, enjoyed the grand illumination and the thrilling 



42 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

excitement. Both divisions withdrew at the same 
hour, and the engagement was not the next day 
renewed. In this short action Colonel Hayes, by his 
courage and gallantry, added to his popularity as an 
officer among both officers and men. 



FROM MAJOR TO MAJOR-GENERAL. 43 



CHAPTER V. 

FROM MAJOR TO MAJOR-GENERAL. 

Opequan — Morass — First Over — Intrepidity — Official 
Reports — Assault on Fisher's Hill — Battle of Cedar 
Creek — Commands a Division — Promoted on Field — 
His Wounds — A Hundred Days under Fire. 

BATTLE OF OPEQUAN. 

Sheridan's battle of Winchester, or Opequan, was 
fought on the 19th of September, 1864. The battle 
had a bad beginning, but a glorious ending. There 
were five hours of staring disaster, and five of in- 
spiring victory. Sheridan, in assuming the offen- 
sive, in September, was compelled to fight Early in the 
latter's chosen and particularly advantageous position, 
at the mouth of a narrow ravine near Winchester. 

Concerning the earlier, or disastrous part of the 
engagement, it is sufficient for our present purpose to 
say that Sheridan moved all except one corps of his 
entire army down this gorge, deployed in the valley 
beyond, fought a bloody fight, and was driven back 
in confusion along his line of advance. At noon the 
enemy were rejoicing over the victory, and their 
friends in Winchester were jubilant. The reserves 
of Sheridan were sent for. General Crook, in person, 
brought the reserve corps into action at one o'clock. 
He made for the enemy's left flank, and pushed direct 
for a battery on their extreme left. The brigade of 
Colonel Hayes was in front, supported by Colonel 



44 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

White's old brigade. The order was to walk fast, 
keep silent until within one hundred yards of the 
guns, and then with a yell charge at full speed. 
These brigades had passed over a ridge and were 
just ready to begin the rush, when they came upon 
a deep morass, forty yards wide, with high banks. 
The enemy's fire now broke out with fury. Of course 
the line stopped. To stop was death, to go on was 
probably the same; but the order was "Forward." 
Colonel Hayes was the first to plunge in; but his 
horse, after frantic struggling, mired down hopelessly 
in the middle of the boggy stream. He sprang off 
and succeeded in reaching the enemy's side. The 
next man over was Lieutenant Stearne, adjutant of 
the Thirty-sixth Ohio. 

Shot and shell were falling in the water as they 
crossed, and were still falling. When Hayes regained 
the opposite bank he motioned rapidly, with his cap 
in hand, for his men to come over. Some held back, 
but many plunged into the bog, and struggled across 
to their leader. Some sank to their chins while hold- 
ing their arms and ammunition over their heads. 
Before fifty men had gotten over, Hayes shouted : 
" Men, right up the bank," and there were the rebel 
batteries without any support. So the artillerymen 
were bayoneted in the act of loading their guns. They 
never dreamed that any Union force could cross the 
barrier before them. The batteries were captured, 
the enemy's position successfully flanked, and hia 
whole force driven back five hundred yards to a sec- 
ond lino of defense. Here, strongly posted, he deliv- 
ered a fearfully destructive fire. The advancing line 
was brought to a standstill by the storm of grape and 



FROM MAJOR TO MAJOR-GENERAL. 45 



balls. Officers in advance were falling faster than oth- 
ers, but all were suffering. Things began to look dark. 
At the most critical moment, a large body of Sheri- 
dan's splendid cavalry, with swords drawn, wound 
slowly around the right, then at a trot, and finally, with 
shouts, at a gallop, charged right into the rebel lines. 
Hayes, now in command of the division, his division 
commander having fallen, pushed on, and the enemy 
in utter confusion fled. Crook's command carried the 
forts which covered the heights, and Hayes led the 
advance of that command. His division entered Win- 
chester in pursuit of Early far in advance of all other 
troops. The spirit of Early's brave army was broken. 
Its loss in this battle was nearly seven thousand men. 
The day following the battle of Opequan, Stanton 
telegraphed Sheridan: "Please accept for yourself 
and your gallant army the thanks of the President 
and the department for your great battle and brilliant 
victory of yesterday." An official report of Colonel 
Comly, commanding the Twenty-third Ohio, thus re- 
fers to Colonel Hayes, division commander: "He is 
everywhere exposing himself recklessly, as usual. He 
was the first one over the slough ; he has been in ad- 
vance of the line half the time since ; his adjutant- 
general has been severely wounded ; men are drop- 
ping all around him ; but he rides through it all as 
if he had a charmed life." 

fisher's hill. 

The assault on South Mountain, or Fisher's Hill, 
occurred on the 22d of September, three days after 
the battle of Opequan. Sheridan was in hot pursuit 
of Early, and had followed him up the Shenandoah 



46 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

valley, overtaking him in position at Fisher's Hill. 
This is a ridge stretching across the valley where it is 
only about three miles wide. There is a creek run- 
ning in front of the ridge. Early had fortified the 
ridge, and was in strong position. Sheridan was dis- 
posed to attack him in front, trusting to the demoral- 
ization from the recent defeat for an easy victory. 

Crook insisted upon trying to turn their left Hank. 
It was finally determined that it could be done. He 
was ordered to take Hayes' division, which led the 
advancing column. Crook and Hayes rode side by 
side at the head of the men. Pretty soon Crook and 
every officer, except Hayes, dismounted. The latter 
had a horse that could go wherever a man could. 
The command went up mountains, pushed their way 
through woods, and slid down ravines and gorges. 
When the enemy's left was supposed to be passed, 
they turned by the flank and bore down on his rear. 
Hayes galloped down a ravine, flanked by mountains, 
until he came right upon the enemy's guns. He rode 
back, ordered his division to charge with a yell, and 
the enemy, seized with a panic, fled. The charge was 
one of great impetuosity, each man trying to reach 
the intrenchments first. Every gun was captured. 
The brilliancy of this victory consisted in flanking 
the enemy from the side of a mountain, where Early 
said only a crow could go. But Colonel Hayes climbed 
there on horseback, at the head of his command. 

CEDAR CREEK. 

On the 19th of October, 1864, was fought the battle 
of Cedar creek, so memorable in the annals of war. 
It wiped out Early and his army. It gave the rebel 



FROM MAJOR TO MAJOR GENERAL. 47 

general Gordon a scat in the United States Senate. It 
made Sheridan lieutenant-general. It made Colonel 
Ha}-es a brigadier-general and Governor of Ohio. 

Sheridan, supposing Early's army too much broken 
by recent defeats to be dangerous, had gone on a visit 
to "Washington, leaving his force in command of Gen- 
eral "Wright. It was posted near Middletown, in the 
rear of Cedar creek, and on both sides of the Win- 
chester pike. Ten miles to the westward, beyond the 
creek, were the enemy's camps. Two things induced 
Early to risk one more battle — the absence of Sheri- 
dan, and his own reinforcement with twelve thousand 
men. Early left camp on the night of the 18th, and, 
passing round with his entire army between Massa- 
nutten mountain and the north fork of the Shenan- 
doah, forded the Shenandoah at midnight, and noise- 
lessly formed in line of battle in the rear and on the 
flank of the Union army. The plan of attack was a 
bold one, and seemed the inspiration of genius. 
The ford that gave the enemy a crossing, which 
should have been well guarded by cavalry, was stu- 
pidly left exposed. At daylight, while Thoburn's 
division were sleeping in their camps, Early's onslaught 
was made. Generals Gordon, Pegram, Kershaw, and 
iWharton charged with the rebel yell upon the left 
rear of Crook's entire command. The assault, under 
the circumstances, was inevitably successful, and the 
whole Union force was hurled back on the Nineteenth 
corps and the Kanawha division, commanded by Col- 
onel Hayes. The enemy overlapped both flanks, and 
pushed forward with irresistible impetuosity. Crook's 
command had already lost seven pieces of artillery, 
and was in rapid retreat. The men meeting the ene- 



48 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

my's charge, knowing that they were outflanked and 
the enemy had gotten in their rear, fought desper- 
ately, but not hopefully. The whole line was pushed 
slowly back. Colonel Hayes, on seeing his right 
breaking up, rode over and with vehemence gave 
orders to stand firm. But the line melted away, leav- 
ing him alone and exposed. A whole volley came 
aimed at him, filling the air and killing his horse with 
twenty balls. The horse going at great speed when 
it fell, threw its rider with great violence to the 
ground, dislocating an ankle and badly bruising 
him from the head down, lie rose, and though 
fired at by the pursuing enemy at forty paces, es- 
caped further wounds or capture. Colonel Hayes 
procured the horse of his orderly, and with great 
exertion gradually brought his men to a stand. 
Here they were alternately preparing their breakfasts, 
and when orders were given, instantaneously forming 
lines. 

At ten o'clock the Union army received a reinforce- 
ment more powerful than was the enemy's of twelve 
thousand men. Sheridan had come, and with him 
confidence had come. He almost instantaneously in- 
spired a beaten army with his own electric energy and 
unconquerable hope. " Boys, we must go back to our 
camps," he said; and they went. The army was re- 
created into a compact, advancing, aggressive organi- 
zation. " The whole line will advance," said Sheridan, 
and it advanced. 

The enemy was charged a first and a second time, 
with infantry in the center and cavalry on the left and 
right. Custer's cavalry kept swooping down on the 



FROM MAJOR TO MAJOR GENERAL. 49 

rebel flank, gathering them in as a sickle gathers 
grain. The gallant Colonel Hayes, too modest to seek 
promotion, though long discharging the duties of z 
major-general, as commander of a veteran division, 
fought in the center, forcing back the rebel line to 
Cedar creek. Here it broke in confusion, abandoning 
seventy pieces of artillery, arms, camps, and transpor- 
tation. The pursuit ceased not until there was no 
longer an enemy to pursue. Early this time " stayed 
whipped." In the Shenandoah valley he ceased to 
take much interest in subsequent events. 

It was on the field of this most complete victory of 
the war that Sheridan clasped the hand of Hayes and 
said: "Colonel, from, this day forward you will be a 
brigadier-general." Ten days after the battle the 
commission came. The gallant Crook presented him 
with the insignia of his new rank, and he wore them. 
On March 13, 18G5, he was promoted to the rank of 
brevet major-general " for gallant and distinguished 
services during the campaign of 1864 in "West Vir- 
ginia, and particularly at the battles of Fisher's Hill 
and Cedar Creek, Virginia." 

General Hayes was wounded four times in battle. 
From one wound he has never entirely recovered. 
He was struck by a shell, just below the knee, while 
on horseback. He did not get off his horse at the 
time, but remained at the front throughout the battle. 
The wound now troubles him when ascending stairs. 
According to the excellent authority of Adjutant- 
General Hastings, Hayes was under fire sixty days in 
1864. He must therefore have been exposed to death 
on one hundred days during the war. 

A soldier who would thus risk life and limb to pre- 



50 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

serve the Union is perhaps entitled to have something 
to say concerning the government of it. He who is 
willing to die for the republic, will see that the repub- 
lic suffers no harm. 

The qualities of General Hayes as a soldier will be 
reviewed when we come to speak of his characteristics 
as a civil magistrate and as a man. 



IN CONGRESS. 51 



CHAPTER VI. 

IN CONGRESS. 

Nomination — Refuses to Leave Army — Election Incident 
— Election — Course in Congress — Services on Library 
Committee — Votes on Various Questions — Submits 
Plan of Constitutional Amendments — Renominated by 
Acclamation — Re-elected by Increased. Majority — Over- 
whelmed with Soldiers' Letters — Character as Con- 
gressman. 

On the 6th of August, 1864, while General Hayes 
was absent from Ohio in the field, he was nominated 
by the Republican Convention of the Secoud Congres- 
sional District of Cincinnati for Congress. This was 
the result of the spontaneous action of his friends, 
and was brought about through their agency alone. 
The nomination was neither sought nor desired. The 
following extract from a letter written in camp, and 
bearing date July 30, 1864, makes known the then 
existing state of the case : 

"As to the canvass that occurs, I care nothing at 
all about it ; neither for the nomination nor for the 
election. It was merely easier to let the thing take 
its own course than to get up a letter declining to 
run, and then to explain it to everybody who might 
choose to bore me about it." 

The iirst information of the nomination for Con- 
gress was conveyed to General Hayes through the let- 
ter of a friend written the day after the convention 
met, which information was received on Monday, 



52 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

Aiiju-t 22d, while preparing for battle, and on the 
same day he did a " good thing" in the way of taking 
prisoners while charging on the rebel lines. Two 
days after, with the enemy in front, he wrote this 
k * private " letter on the subject of going home to can- 
vass : 

Camp of Sheridan's Army, 
near Charlestown, Va., August 24, 1864. 
Friend S. : — Your favor of the 7th came to hand on Monday. 
It was the 6rsi I had heard of the doings of the Second District 
Convention. My thanks for your attention and assistance in 
the premises. I cared very little about being a candidate, but 
having consented to the use of my name I preferred to succeed. 
Your suggestion about getting a furlough to take the stump was 
certainly made without reflection. An officer fit for duty who 
at this crisis would abandon his post to electioneer for a seat in 
Congress ought to be scalped. You may feel perfectly sure I 
shall do no such thing. "We are, and for two weeks past have 
been, in the immediate presence of a large rebel army. We 
have skirmishing and small affairs constantly. I am not posted 
in the policy deemed wise at headquarters, and can't, guess as 
to the prospects of a general engagement. The condition and 
spirit df this army are good and improving. I suspect the en- 
emy are sliding around us toward the Potomac. If they cross 
we -hall pretty certainly have a meeting. 
Sincerely, 

E. B. HAYES. 

An incident of this canvass caused at the time it oc- 
curred intense feeling and indignation. The Democrats 
were having a large: mass meeting in Cincinnati, with 
an immense procession. Among the banners or trans- 
parencies carried in the procession was one large, 
coarsely-executed affair, representing General Hayes 
dodging bullets while running from the enemy. As 
Haws was at that very moment at the front fighting 
the enemy, this assault in the rear was not deemed by 



IN CONGRESS. 53 



Union-loving men to fall within the rules of legiti- 
mate political warfare. Some soldiers of the " Old 
Kanawha" division happening to be at home recov- 
ering from wounds, had their indignation aroused to 
such an uncontrollable pitch that they insisted upon 
ignominiously trampling down the libelous transpar- 
ency and its bearer. They had seen General Hayes 
bare his breast a hundred times to the bullet-storm of 
battle, and thought they were better judges oi what 
constituted courage than men who stayed at home 
occupying their time in passing resolutions that the 
war was a "failure." These old veteran comrades of 
Ha} T es were moving in compact line to charge on the 
procession, when a number of good citizens, in the 
interest of order and to prevent a riot, had the ob- 
noxious banner removed. It is but just to say that 
Democrats of the better sort totally disapproved of 
this public indecency and excuseless outrage. 

During the cauvass for Congress, and while in the 
thickest of the bloody tight at Opequan, the soldiers 
under General Hayes kept crying out : "We will gain 
a victory to-da} r , Colonel, and elect you to Congress ;" 
"One more charge, and you go to Congress ! " These 
brave defenders of the Republic well knew the effect 
of a Union victory upon a pending election. When 
the soldiers' vote was taken on Tuesday, the 11th of 
October, not a man in the Twenty-third or Thirty- 
sixth Ohio regiment voted the Democratic ticket, and 
but fifty-three voted the Peace ticket in the entire 
division commanded by General Hayes. The result 
of his first contest for Congress, or rather candidacy, 
for there was no contest on his part, was his triumph- 
ant election by a majority of two thousand four him- 



LIl'M OP RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 



oi 

P* 

W If 



dred and fifty-five votes. His competitor was Joseph 
C. Butler, a banker, capitalist, and most respectable 
gentleman. Eight days after the election, the battle' 
of Cedar Creek was fought, so that the news of two 
victories came to the faithful soldier at the same time. 
Conducting a congressional campaign ou the front, 
tear, and flanks of the enemy, worked well. To Hayes 
the cause of the Union was such a sacred cause that 
he could not cease fighting the enemies of that Union 
BO long as there remained an armed enemy to fight. 

The war being ended, he took his seat on the first 
day of the first session of the Thirty-ninth Congress, 
which assembled December 4, 1865. Among the able 
or notable men in that Congress were Shellabarger, 
Bingham, Schenck, Spaulding, and Garfield, from 
< Him i, and Thad. Stevens, Conkling, Kerr, E. B. Wash- 
burne, A. II. Rice, Raymond, ISnblack, John A. Gris- 
wold, Farnsworth, Orth, Cullom, Dawes, Blaine, Voor- 
hees, and Randal], from other States. The first session 
was mainly occupied with the question of reconstruc- 
tion. The, central questions during the subsequent 
sessions were those; growing out of the impeachment 
of President Johnson. General Hayes voted consist- 

itly with his party on these two classes of questions, 
lie was the only new member, except one, who w r as 
given the chairmanship of a committee, being placed 
at the head of the joint committee of the House on 
Library. The other members were Win. D. Kelley, of 
Pennsylvania, and Calvin T. Hurlburd, of New York. 

^ chairman of the committee on the Library of the 
I uited States, to employ (he language of its accom- 
plished librarian, he had "a clear discernment and 
quick apprehensi >f all things that needed to be 



IN CONGRESS. 55 



done;" he "threw his influence in favor of the most 
liberal and permanent improvement." 

Daring his term of service on the committee, the 
Library was expanded by the addition of two wings, 
increasing threefold its space. The "Force Historical 
Library" was added, to the acquisition of which Gen- 
eral Ha3 r es devoted months of zealous labor. It is 
now one of the most valuable parts of the great Li- 
brary. He procured in the House the passage of the 
Senate bill to transfer the Library of the Smithsonian 
Institution to the Library of Congress. He intro- 
duced a joint resolution to extend the privileges of 
the Library to a larger class of public officers. He 
reported back and recommended the passage of a 
copyright bill for securing to the Library copies of 
all books, pamphlets, maps, etc., published in the 
United States. 

In dealing with the subject of art while on this 
committee, Hayes showed artistic taste and judgment. 
He voted to reject works without merit, such as 
busts and portraits, and favored giving government 
commissions to real artists of conceded genius and es- 
tablished standing. ^ 

One of the first votes of General Hayes in Congre^l 
was cast in favor of this resolution : ^^ 

" That the public debt created during the late re- 
bellion was contracted upon the faith and honor of the 
nation ; that it is sacred and inviolate, and must and 
ought to be paid, principal and interest; and that any 
attempt to repudiate or in any manner impair or scale 
the said debt should be universally discountenanced 
by the people, and promptly rejected by Congress if 
proposed." 



5G LIFE OF RUTHERFORD D. HAYES. 

Early in the session a resolution was introduced 
*• that the committee on appropriations be instructed 
to bring in a bill increasing the compensation of mem- 
bers of Congress." Mr. Hayes voted for Mr. E. B. 
Washburne's motion to lay the resolution on the table.. 
This is the whole of his record on the back pay and 
front pay questions. General Hayes during the ses- 
sion voted for a resolution commending President 
Johnson for declining to accept presents, and con- 
demning the practice as demoralizing in its tendencies 
and destructive of public confidence. This vote needs 
no explanation to enable it to be understood. 

He also submitted the following resolution, which 
was read, considered, and agreed to : 

" That the committee on military affairs be instructed 
to inquire into the expediency of providing by law 
for punishing by imprisonment or otherwise any per- 
son who, as agent or attorney, shall collect from the 
government money due to officers, soldiers, or sailors, 
or to their widows or orphans, for services in the 
army or navy, or for pensions or bounties, and who 
shall fraudulently convert the same to his own use; 
and to report by bill or otherwise." 

This was timely action aimed to remedy what has 
since became a gross abuse and most serious evil. Its 
purpose was to check robbery and secure to soldiers 
and sailors their own. 

In 1865, General Hayes submitted to leading Ee- 
publicans in Congress, and subsequently to the Re- 
publican caucus, these resolutions, which became the 
basis of the action of the party : 

"Besolved, Thai it is the sense of the caucus that 
the besi it' not the only mode of obtaining front the 



IN CONGRESS. 57 



States lately m rebellion guarantees which will he 
irreversible is by amendments of the national consti- 
tution. 

" Resolved. That such amendments to the national 
constitution as may be deemed necessary ought to be: 
submitted to the house for its action at as early a day 
as possible, in order to propose them to the several 
states during the present sessions of their legislatures. 

" Resolved, That an amendment, basing representa- 
tion on voters instead of population, ought to be 
promptly acted upon, and the judiciary committee is 
requested to prepare resolutions for that purpose, and 
submit them to the house as soon as practicable." 

When the ratification of the amendments taking 
their origin from these resolutions became a matter of 
supreme concern, Mr. Orth and Mr. Cullom, now the 
Eepublican candidates for Governor in Indiana and 
Illinois, in conjunction with Mr. Hayes, drafted the 
following letter, which was signed by Republican 
members of Congress and forwarded to Governor 
Brownlow, of Tennessee : 

" The undersigned members of Congress respectfully 
suggest, that, as Governor of the State of Tennessee, 
you call a special session of the legislature of your 
state, for the purpose of ratifying the constitutional 
amendment submitted by the present Congress to the 
several states for ratification, believing that upon such 
ratification this Congress will, during its present ses- 
sion, recognize the present state government of Ten- 
nessee and admit the state to representation in both 
houses of Congress." 

The session of the legislature was called, the four- 
teenth amendment ratified, and the Tennessee mem- 



58 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD I). HAYES. 



bers admitted to seats in Congress in July, 1866. 
This ratification was the one required to render the 
amendment valid. 

In tin- fall of ISO."), General Hayes delivered very 
earnest political speeches in about twenty counties 
in Ohio, in advocacy of the election of his military 
comrade, General Jacob D. Cox, as governor of the 
Btate* We find many of these speeches partially 
reported, and from one delivered in the West end, in 
Cincinnati, September 28, we take this extract: 

" The Democratic plan of reorganization is this : 
The rebels, having laid down their arms and aban- 
doned their attempt to break up the Union, are now 
entitled, as a matter of right, to be restored to all the 
rights, political and civil, which they enjoyed before 
the rebellion, precisely as if they had remained loyal. 
They are to vote, to hold office, to bear arms, imme- 
diately and unconditionally. There is to be no confis- 
cation and no punishment, either for leaders or fol- 
lowers — do amendment or change of the constitution 
by way of guaranty against future rebellion — no in- 
demnity for the past, and no security for the future. 
The Union party objects to this plan, because it wants, 
before rebels shall again be restored to power, an 
amendment to the constitution which shall remove all 
vestiges of slavery, and an amendment which shall 
equalize representation between the States having a 
large negro population and the States whose negro 
population is small." 

lu August, 1866, Genera] Hayes received the in- 
dorsement of a renomination to Congress by acclama- 
tion. There was no opposing candidate. He entered 
at once into the canvass, lie delivered a speech almost 



IN CONGRESS. 50 



every afternoon or evening until the day of the elec- 
tion, lie frequently spoke outside of his own district, 
to aid his friends. The questions at issue were the 
reconstruction measures of Congress and of President 
Johnson, and the merits of the new constitutional 
amendments. In a public speech delivered in the 
Seventeenth Ward, in Cincinnati, September 7, 1866, 
he discussed at great length the questions of the day. 
In conclusion he said 

" The Union party is prepared to make great sacri- 
fices in the future, as in the past, for the sake of peace 
and for the sake of union, but submission to what is 
wrong can never be the foundation of a real peace or a 
lasting union. They can have no other sure founda- 
tion but the principles of eternal justice. The Union 
men therefore say to the South : ' We ask nothing 
but what is right ; we will submit to nothing that is 
wrong.' With undoubting confidence we submit the 
issue to the candid judgment of the patriotic people 
of the country, under the guidance of that Providence 
which has hitherto blessed and preserved the Nation." 

The canvass was an active and exciting one ; but 
General Haj'es was re-elected over a competitor of so 
high standing as Theodore Cook, by a majority of 
two thousand five hundred and fifty-six. It is notice- 
able that while there was a Republican loss of seven 
hundred in the first district, compared with the vote 
for Congressmen in 1864, in the second district there 
Avas a gain of one hundred over the vote of two 
years before. 

General Hayes took his seat in the Fortieth 
Congress, which convened March 11, 1867. He was 
re-appointed chairman of the library committee, with 



GO LIFE OP RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 



John D. Baldwin, of Massachusetts, and J. V.L.Pruyn*; 
of New York, as associate members. General Hayes' 
three yours in Congress were almost continuously em- 
ployed in exacting labors in looking after the pen- 
sions and pay of soldiers, and in making provision 
for their families. Cincinnati had sent a great many 
soldiers into the war, and all who had wants sent their 
petitions to the only representative of Hamilton county 
who had served in the army. The soldiers of his old 
division, scattered over the country, sent their applica- 
tions to him as a sympathizing friend. He had as many 
as sewn hundred cases of this kind on hand at one time. 
His time was therefore necessarily consumed in run- 
ning to the departments and in answering soldiers' 
correspondence. This service of love was of course 
gratuitously and most cheerfully -rendered ; but it 
withdrew him more or less from his duties on the 
floor of Congress. 

He was not consequently a speeclimaker in Congress, 
but a business-doer. His innate good sense taught 
him that the public business was pushed forward, not 
\>\ talking much, but by talking little. Like Schurz, 
who became the intellectual leader of the Senate, like 
Senator Edmunds and most strong men, he kept silent 
while new to the business of legislation. Pie was 
constantly consulted by the chief men in his party 
because he possessed that most essential quality in a 
pn Mir man — good judgment. He did no talking for 
himself, but an immense deal of working for others. 
Every soldier was his constituent, whether he lived 
in M nine or Nebraska. He placed self not first, 

hilt hist. 

lb' had no thought of tame or higher place, but 



IN CONGRESS. Gl 



silently served those that loved him, and to the 
mainied or needy tried to make the burdens and 
loads of life lighter. He doubtless thought that "he 
who lives a great truth is incomparably greater than 
he who but speaks it." 



02 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 



CHAPTER VII. 

ELECTED GOVERNOR OF OHIO. 

Party of State Rights — Their Convention — Platform — 
i\u,in'/Hif/'iui of Thar man — Republican Convention and 
Platform — Nomination of Hayes — Platform — Opening 
Speech at Lebanon — Thurman at Waverly — National 
Interest aroused — Hayes Victorious — Inaugural — 
First Annual Message — Second Annual Message. 

The questions at issue in the great political canvass 
of 18(37, in Ohio, were closely allied to the one whether 
the National Government had a constitutional right to 
maintain its existence. It was many years after the 
war of the Rebellion before the Democratic party could 
be induced to admit that the war had settled anything. 
The question of State or National supremacy or sov- 
ereignty, settled a hundred times by argument and 
twice by arms, was still persistently argued by them 
as ;in open question. The State Supremacy or State 
Rights party fought the constitution at the time of 
its adoption, on the ground that, it established a su- 
preme central government, and were defeated. They 
opposed putting down the Whisky Rebellion, in Penn- 
sylvania, under the leadership of Jefferson and Ran- 
dolph, and were outvoted in the Cabinet by Washing- 
ton, Hamilton, and Knox. They forced their disin- 
tegration doctrines into the Supreme Court, and were 
there vanquished by the resistless logic of Chief Jus- 
tice Marshall. The same old doctrine assumed the 



ELECTED GOVERNOR OP OHIO. 63 

form of nullification under the teachings of Calhoun 
in South Carolina, and was stamped out by Jackson. 
It appeared again in the great debate between Ilayne 
and Webster, and was annihilated, so far as argument 
can put an end to any heresy. But it reappeared in 
1861, with Davis, Stephens, Lee, and Breckenridgc as 
its most powerful advocates and exponents. 

The identical questions discussed in Washington's 
Cabinet, when there was a Whisky Insurrection to be 
put down, were discussed by Lincoln and Davis, by 
Meade and Lee, at Gettysburg, and by Grant and 
Pembertou, at Vicksburg. Is a State or is the Repub- 
lic supreme, has been the central question dividing 
parties for a hundred years. The Democracy are still 
talking about "sovereign and independent states," as 
if there were more than one sovereign State on the 
continent — the Republic itself. 

The Demoeratic State Convention, which met at 
Columbus, January 8, 1867, forgetting that "war 
legislates," continued harping on the old State Rights 
theme. The temporary chairman of the convention, 
Dr. J. M. Christian, varied the monotony a little when 
he elegantly said : " We have come here not only to 
celebrate an honored clay, but to nominate men of 
noble hearts, determined to release the State from the 
thraldom of niggerism, and place it under the con- 
trol of the Democratic party." 

Mr. George H. Pendleton, the permanent chairman, 
delivered a rhetorical State rights speech, in which 
he said : " The Democratic party has always main- 
tained the rights of the States as essential to the 
maintenance of the Union." 

The platform or resolutions of the convention, re- 



C4 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

ported by Mr. C. L. Vallandigham, contained a great 
dual of the same sort of thing, supplemented with 
this resolution : " That the Radical majority in the so- 
called Congress have proved themselves to be in favor 
of negro suffrage by forcing it upon the people of the 
District of Columbia, against their almost unanimous 
wish, solemnly expressed at the polls; by forcing it 
upon the people of all the territories, and by their 
various devices to coerce the people of the South to 
adopt it; that we are opposed to negro suffrage, be- 
lieving it would be productive of evil to both whites 
and blacks, and tend to produce a disastrous conflict 
of races." 

The convention nominated, by acclamation, Hon. 
Allen G. Thurman for Governor. Judge Thurman 
had served one term in Congress and five years upon 
the Supreme Bench of the State, and was a gentleman 
of high personal character, and a lawyer of extended 
reputation and commanding abilities. 

The Republican State Convention assembled at Co- 
lumbus, June 19, 1867, to nominate candidates for 
governor, lieutenant-governor, and other State officers. 
The three candidates most talked of for governor 
were lion. Samuel Galloway, Adjutant-General B. R. 
Co wen, and General Hayes, then representing the Sec- 
ond District in Congress. Mr. Galloway had served 
in Congress, had long been one of the most active 
members of the Republican party, and was popular 
because of his abilities as a stump speaker. General 
Cowen had devoted much time to the organization of 
the Slate in his own interest as a candidate, and was 
possessed of considerable managing ability. Public 
opinion, however, in Northern, Southern, and Western 



ELECTED GOVERNOR OF OHIO. 65 

Ohio had concentrated upon General R. 13. Ilaj-es be- 
fore the convention met. The times seemed to demand 
a military man for leader, and, in the language of the 
Cincinnati Commercial, there were " no better military 
records than his, if they are to rated by brave, faith- 
ful, steadfast service." General J. D. Cox was not a 
candidate for renomination. General Hayes was the 
idol of the soldiers. As early as 1865, his old divis- 
ion, while he himself was absent on a distant field of 
duty, held a meeting, between skirmishes with the 
enemy, and passed resolutions nominating him for 
Governor of Ohio for the canvass of that year. The 
soldiers went so far as to send circulars to the different 
counties of the State, embodying their resolutions. 
When General Hayes first heard of these proceedings 
he gave immediate and peremptory instructions to 
have them stopped. He forbade the use of his name in 
such connection, on pain of his permanent displeasure. 

The Convention of June, 1867, was almost impru- 
dently courageous in the enunciation of sound, but 
then unpopular, principles. It placed the Republican 
party "on the broad platform of impartial manhood 
suffrage as embodied in the proposed amendment to 
the State Constitution," and appealed to the "intelli- 
gence, justice, and patriotism of the people of Ohio 
to approve it at the ballot-box." The platform em- 
phasized the point — always well taken — that the 
United States is a Nation. 

On this platform General Hayes was nominated for 
Governor on the first ballot, receiving two hundred 
and eighty-six votes to two hundred and eight cast 
for Mr. Galloway. The nomination was accepted for 
him by a friend in his absence. The honor which 



CG LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 



came to him unsought was borne with the modesty 
of a Boldier. 

On the evening of the nominations, Mr. Fred. Has- 
Baurek delivered in Columbus a very able speech in 
favor of manhood equality, in the course of which ho 
said : " The men who now lead and officer the Demo- 
cratic party arc the most dangerous enemies of the 
country, of its peace, prosperity, and welfare. Let 
both sections of the country unite to give a final, 
crushing blow to the influence of Democratic leaders. 
Let the serpent be fully expelled from Paradise, and 
our country will soon be a Garden of Eden again." 

General Hayes, having resigned his seat in Con- 
gress, opened the campaign of '67 in a compre- 
hensive speech, delivered at Lebanon, August 5, 
aggressive in tone and full of bristling points. It 
was equivalent to a charge along the whole of the 
enemies' line — a species of tactics which he had 
learned the advantage of in the valley of the She- 
nandoah. We refer the reader to this clear, resolute, 
vigorous speech, reprinted in full in the Appendix, 
for the grounds upon which the Republican leader 
demanded a popular verdict against his political ad- 
versaries. The speech showed that he deserved the 
eulogies of the press which followed his nomination, 
among which were those of Colonel Donn Piatt — a 
judge of ability, to say the least — who had written: 
"The people will find his utterances full of sound 
thought, and his deportment modest, dignified, and 
unpretending. . . . Possessed of a high order 
of talent, enriched by stores of information, General 
Eayes is one of the few men capable of accomplish- 
ing much without any egotistical assertion of self." 



ELECTED GOVERNOR OF OIIIO. 67 

General James M. Comly bad said: "More than four 
years' service in the same command gave the writer 
ample opportunity to know that no braver or more 
clashing and enterprising commander gave his services 
to the Republic than General Hayes. He was the idol 
of his command. No man of his soldiery ever doubted 
when he led. In principle he is as radical as we could 
desire. His vote has been given in Congress on every 
square issue for the right. He is no wabbler or time- 
server. He no more dodges votes than he did bullets." 

Judge Thurman — now Senator A. G. Thurmau — 
opened the campaign on the Democratic side in an 
elaborate speech, delivered at Waverly, August 5th, 
and reported in the Cincinnati Commercial of August 
6th. He vigorously defended the course and action 
of the Peace Democracy in Ohio, and assailed Mr. 
Lincoln and his administration with an extravagance 
of language that weakened the force of many of his 
arguments during the campaign. He intemperately 
asserted that there was " scarcely a provision of the 
Constitution" that had not been "shamelessly and 
needlessly trampled under foot" by "these enemies 
of our Government," including as "enemies" the 
Congress and Cabinet that supported and maintained 
the war for the Union. These and other unfortunate 
allusions, such as that to the "poison of Abolition- 
ism," enabled General Hayes to effectively retort at 
Sidney, and at other points. So much of the Sidney 
speech as refers to Judge Thurman's Waverly speech 
is reproduced in our Appendix. 

The contest waxed warm between these able antag- 
onists, and the number of speeches that each deliv- 
ered was only limited by his powers of physical en- 



68 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 



durance. Meetings were held night and day, from 
the beginning until the close of the canvass. Much 
more than the governorship was involved. A United 
Si airs Senator, for six years, was to be chosen by the 
incoming Legislature. But, above all, the vital prin- 
ciple of manhood suffrage, and the righteousness or 
unrighteousness of the war to preserve the Union, 
were issues to be decided. 

As the contest grew in magnitude it aroused a 
national interest. Morton, Julian, Orth, and Gov- 
ernor Baker came from Indiana to aid Hayes in the 
struggle; Shelby M. Cullom, and John A. Logan 
from Illinois; Schurz from Missouri; Governor Har- 
riman from IsTew Hampshire ; Chandler from Michi- 
gan ; and Glcni W. Scofield from Pennsylvania. The 
home talent — and no State ever had more — was in the 
iield in force. There were men of conceded abilities, 
such as Aaron F. Perry, Shellabarger, Hassaurek, 
W. II. West, Judge Storer, and John A. Bingham, 
and men of reputation like Governors Cox and Den- 
nison, Galloway, John C. Lee, and Senators Wade 
and Sherman, who manifested the most earnest inter- 
est in the canvass. 

Judge Thurman was not so ably seconded, although 
Vallandigham, Pendleton, Ranuey, H. J. Jewett, Dur- 
bin Ward, George W. McCook, Frank II. Hurd, and 
other well-known leaders contributed aid to the ex- 
tint of their ability. 

In this canvass General Hayes gave proofs jc^that 
boldness and moral audacity for which he is remarka- 
ble. In every community in which he went he was 
besoughl h\ committee-men, soldiers, and others, to 
Bay nothing about the suffrage amendment. Negro 



ELECTED GOVERNOR OF OHIO. 69 

suffrage, at that time, was exceedingly unpopular. 
He rejected, with some feeling, these timid counsels. 
He maintained, everywhere, the inherent justice of 
equality at the polls and before the law, and insisted 
that the man who was willing to give up his life for 
the Union should have a voice in its government. 
By this hold course he made votes for the amendment, 
hut lost votes for himself. The result of the cam- 
paign had this peculiar feature, that while General 
Hayes and the Republican State ticket were elected, 
the main issue of the contest was defeated by fifty thou- 
sand majority. The prejudices of a hundred years 
could not he removed in a hundred days. Had Judge 
Thurnian and his aids concentrated the fire of their 
batteries upon the suffrage redoubt — the weak point 
in their adversaries' lines — they would probably have 
gained a sweeping victory. As it was, Thurman car- 
ried the Legislature, and secured a seat in the United 
States Senate. General Hayes was elected by the 
small majority of two thousand nine hundred and 
eighty-three votes, running somewhat ahead of his 
ticket. 

He was inaugurated as Governor of Ohio, in the 
rotunda of the Capitol, January 13, 1868. On that 
occasion, in the presence of the Legislature and judi- 
cial departments of the State Government, and a large 
concourse of citizens, he delivered the following 
inaugural address : 

Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives, and Fellow- 
Citizens : 
The duty devolved on the governor by the constitution of 
communicating by message to the General Assembly the condi 
tion of the State, and of recommending such measures as he 



70 LIFE OP RUTIIERFORD B. HAYES. 

deems expedient, has been performed at the present session by 
my predecessor, Governor Cox, in a manner so thorough and 
comprehensive that I do not feel called upon to enter upon a 
discussion of questions touching the administration of the State 
i_'..\ eminent. 

I ran think of no better reward for the faithful performance 
of tin- duties of the office which 1 am about to assume than that 
which, I believe, my immediate predecessor is entitled to enjoy, — 
the knowledge that in the opinion of his fellow-citizens, of all 
parties he has, by Ins culture, his ability, and his integrity, hon- 
ored the office of Governor of Ohio, and that he now leaves it 
with a conscience satisfied with the discharge of duty. 

I congratulate the members of the General Assembly that 
many of the questions which have hitherto largely engaged the 
attention of the law-making power, and divided the people of 
the State, have, in the progress of events, either been settled, or, 
in the general judgment of the people, been transferred for 
investigation and decision to the National government. The 
State debt, taxation, the currency, and internal improvements, 
for many years furnished the prominent topics of discussion 
and controversy in Ohio. In the year 1845 the State debt 
reached its highest point. It amounted to $20,018,515.67, and 
in the same year the total taxable property of the State was 
$136,142,666. With a disordered currency, with business pros- 
trated, with labor often insufficiently rewarded, the burden of 
this debt was severely felt, and questions in regard to it natu- 
rally entered into the partisan struggles of the time. Now the 
State debt is $11,031,941.50; the taxable property of the State 
amounts to $1,138,754,779; and there is no substantial difference 
of opinion among the people as to the proper mode of dealing 
with this suhject. 
State taxation was formerly the occasion of violent party con- 
Now men of all parties concur in the opinion that, as a 
genera] rule, every citizen ought to be taxed in proportion to the 
actual value of his property, without regard to the form in which 
he prefers to invest it; and differences as to the measures by 
which the principle is practically applied rarely enter into po- 
litical struggles in I >hio. 

Party conflicts and debates as to State laws in relation to 
banking and the currency constitute a large part of the political 



ELECTED GOVERNOR OF OHIO. 71 

history of the State. But the events of the last few years have 
convinced those who are in favor of a paper currency that in 
the present condition of the country it can best be furnished by 
the National government, either by means of National banks or 
in the form of legal tender treasury notes. State legislatures 
are therefore relieved from the consideration of this difficult 
and perplexing subject. 

Internal improvements made by State authority, so essential 
to growth and prosperity in the early history of the State, no 
longer require much consideration by the General Assembly. 
Works of a magnitude too great to be undertaken by individual 
enterprise will hereafter be, for the most part, accomplished by 
the government of the Nation. 

The part which patriotism required Ohio to take in the war to 
suppress rebellion demanded important and frequent acts of 
legislation. Fortunately the transactions of the State growing 
out of the war have been, or probably can be, closed under ex- 
isting laws, with very little, if any, additional legislation. 

If not mistaken as to the result of this brief reference to a 
few of the principal subjects of the legislation of the past, the 
present General Assembly has probably a better opportunity 
than any of its predecessors to avoid the evil of too much legis- 
lation. Excessive legislation has become a great evil, and I 
submit to the judgment of the General Assembly the wisdom of 
avoiding it. 

One important question of principle as old as our State gov- 
ernment still remains unsettled. All are familiar with the con- 
flicts to which the j)olicy of making distinctions between citizens 
in civil and political rights has given rise in Ohio. The first 
effort of those who opposed this policy was to secure to all citi- 
zens equality of civil rights. The result of the struggle that 
ensued is thus given by an eminent and honored citizen of our 
State: "The laws which created disabilities on the part of ne- 
groes in respect of civil rights were repealed in the year 1849, 
after an obstinate contest, quite memorable in the history of the 
State. Their repeal was looked upon with great disfavor by a 
large portion of the people as a dangerous innovation upon a 
just and well-settled policy, and a vote in that direction con- 
signed many members of the legislature to the repose of private 
life. But I am not aware that any evil results justified these ap- 



72 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 



prehensions, or thai any effort was ever made to impose the dis- 
ahilities. < In the contrary, the new policy, if I may call it so, 
baa been found so consistent with justice to the negroes and the 
interests of the whites that no one — certainly no party — in 
Ohio, would be willing to abandon it." 

An effort to secure to all citizens equal political rights was 
made in the State constitutional convention of 1851. Only thir- 
teen out of one hundred and eight members in that body voted 
in its favor; and it is probable that less than one-tenth of the 
voters of the State would then have voted to strike the word 
"white" out of the constitution. 

'I he last General Assembly submitted to the people a proposi- 
tion to amend the State constitution so as to abolish distinctions 
in political rights based upon color. The proposition contained 
several clauses not pertinent to its main purpose, tinder which, 
if adopted, it was believed by many that the number of white 
citi/.ens who would be disfranchised would be much greater than 
the number of colored citizens who would be allowed the right 
of suffrage. Notwithstanding the proposition was thus ham- 
pered, it received 210,987 votes, or nearly forty-five per cent, of 
all the votes cast in the State. This result shows great progress 
in public sentiment since the adoption of the constitution of 
1851, and inspires the friends of equal political rights with a 
confident hope that in 1871, when the opportunity is given to 
the people, by the provisions of the constitution, to call a con- 
Btitutional convention, the organic law of the State will be so 
amended as to secure in Ohio to all the governed an equal voice 
in the government. 

But whatever reasonable doubts may be entertained as to the 
probable action of the people of Ohio on the question of an ex- 
tension of the right of suffrage when a new State constitution 
shall be formed, 1 submit with confidence that nothing has oc- 
curred which warrants the opinion that the ratification by the 
l.i i i loneral Assembly of the fourteenth amendment to the con- 
Btitution of the United States was not in accordance with the 
deliberate and settled convictions of the people. That amend- 
ment was, alter lie- amplest discussion upon an issue distinctly 
presented, sanctioned by a large majority of the people. If any 
facl exists which just iiies the belief that they now wish that the 
re -lui i"ii should be repealed bj which the' assent of Ohio was 






ELECTED GOVERNOR OF OHIO. 73 

given to that important amendment, it has not been brought to 
the attention of the public. Omitting all reference to other 
valuable provisions, it may be safely said that the section which 
secures among all the States of the Union equal representation 
in the House of Representatives and in the electoral colleges in 
proportion to the voting population, is deemed of vital impor- 
tance by the people of Ohio. Without now raising the grave 
question as to the right of a State to withdraw its assent, which 
has been constitutionally given to a proposed amendment of the 
Federal constitution, I respectfully suggest that the attempt 
which is now making to withdraw the assent of Ohio to the 
fourteenth amendment to the Federal constitution be postponed 
until the people shall again have an opportunity to give expres- 
sion to their will. In my judgment, Ohio will never consent 
that the whites of the South, a large majority of whom were 
lately in rebellion, shall exercise in the government of the Na- 
tion as much political power, man for man, as the same number 
of white citizens of Ohio, and be allowed in addition thereto 
thirty members of Congress and of the electoral colleges, for col- 
ored people deprived of every political privilege. 

In conclusion, I am happy to be able to adopt as my own the 
sentiments so fitly expressed by the speaker of the House of 
Representatives of the present General Assembly. I sincerely 
hope that the legislation of the General Assembly and the ad- 
ministration of the State government in all its branches may be 
characterized by economy, wisdom, and prudence; that states- 
manship, patriotism, and philanthropy may be manifest in every 
act, and that all may be done under the guidance of that Provi- 
dence which has hitherto so signally preserved and blessed our 
State and Nation. 

Certain principles are laid down in this address. 
One is that every citizen ought to be taxed in propor- 
tion to the actual value of his property. Another is 
that too much legislation is an evil to be avoided. A 
third is that equality of civil rights justly belongs to 
all citizens, notwithstanding the vote at the recent 
election to the contrary ; and a fourth, that represen- 



LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 



tation according to voting population is a sound prin- 
ciple, and the people of Ohio must stand by the Four- 
tenth Amendment to the National Constitution. The 
Democratic legislature were endeavoring to withdraw 
Ohio's previous ratification. This admirable address 
needs no further comment. 

Governor Hayes took an active part in the State 
canvass of 18G8, being assisted by Hon. James G. 
Blaine, who spoke with marked effect in Columbus, 
October 9th. 

At the session of the legislature in November, 1868, 
the governor delivered his first annual message. 

FeUow-cilizens of the General Assembly : 

Upon your assembling to enter again upon the duty of legis- 
Iating for the welfare of the people of Ohio, the Governor is re- 
quired by the constitution to communicate to you the condition 
of the State, and to recommend such measures as he shall deem 
expedient, 'flic reports of the executive officers of the State, 
and of the heads of the State institutions, are required by law 
to be made to the Governor on or before the 20th day of Novem- 
ber of each year. Since that date, sufficient time has not elapsed 
I'm- the publication of the reports, and I shall therefore not be 
able, at the opening of your present session, to lay before you a 
detailed exposition of the affairs of the various departments of 
the State government. It will be my purpose in this communi- 
e it ion to invite your attention to a few brief suggestions in re- 
lation to some measures which are deemed important, and which 
may be considered and acted upon, if you think it advisable, in 
ail vanee of the publication of the official reports. 

The financial affairs of the State government are in a satisfac- 
tory condition. The balance in the treasury on the 15th of No- 
\. mber, 1867, was $677,990.79; the receipts during the last fiscal 
year .were $4,347,484.82; making the total amount of funds in 
the treasury, during the year, $5,025,475.61. 

'lie- disbursements during the year have been $4,455,354.86; 
which sum has been paid out of the treasury from the several 
funds, :i- follows, viz : 



ELECTED GOVERNOR OF OHIO. 75 



General revenue fund $1,518,210 35 

Canal fund 14,939 39 

National road fund 18,829 36 

Sinking fund/. 1,472.220 33 

Common school fund 1,426,868 80 

Bank redemption fund 16 95 

Soldiers' claims fund 3,781 6S 

Soldiers' allottment fund 4^2 00 

Balance in treasury, November 15, 1868 570,120 7-3 

Total $5,025,475.61 

The amount of the public funded debt, November 

15, 1867, was $11,031,941 56 

During the year, the redemptions were — 

On the loan of I860 $14,650 67 

Of foreign union loan of 1868 191,166 00 

Of domestic loan of 1868 130,088 13 

Of loan of 1870 157,361 33 

499,266 13 



Debt outstanding, November 15, 1868 $10,532,075 43 

Small temporary appropriations are required as promptly as 
practicable for each of the following objects, the existing appro- 
priations having been exhausted, viz: Expenses of the Presi- 
dential election; expenses of the General Assembly, trustees of 
benevolent institutions, care of state-house, gas for state-house, 
expenses of legislative committees, binding for the State, and 
the new idiotic asylum. 

In pursuance of an act passed March 18, 1867, a board of com- 
missioners, consisting of Aaron F. Perry, of Hamilton county, 
Charles E. Glidden, of Mahoning county, and James H. God- 
man, auditor of State, was appointed by my predecessor, Gov- 
ernor Cox, whose duty it was " to revise all the laws of this State 
relating to the assessment and taxation of property, the collec- 
tion, safe-keeping, and disbursement of the revenues, and all 
the laws constituting the financial system of the State," and to 
report their proceedings to the next session of the General As- 
sembly. The report of the commission was laid before you at 
your last session. It disclosed many imperfections and inconsis- 
tencies in the existing legislation touching the finances and the 
urgent necessity for an elaborate revision of that legislation. 
Their report was accompanied by eight separate bills, consolidat- 



7G LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. IIAYES. 

ing the present laws, removing contradictions, and supplying 
defects, but introducing no radical change in the general print 
ciples of our financial system. These bills have already been 
Bomewhat considered by both branches of the General Assem- 
bly, but no definite action upon them has yet been had. I re- 
spectfully recommend an early consideration of the bills, and 
their adoption, with such amendments as, in your judgment, the 
public interests may require. 

The destruction of the central lunatic asylum by fire, during 
the night of the 18th inst., causing the death, by suffocation, of 
six of the patients, and incalculable distress and suffering to the 
remainder, will require investigation and prompt action on your 
part. In rebuilding the asylum, the erection of a fire-proof 
building will occur to you as alike the suggestion of prudence 
and humanity. 

This calamity also suggests the propriety of examining the 
condition of the other institutions of the State, with a view to 
providing them with every proper means of security against a 
similar disaster. 

The interests of common school education, in my opinion, will 
be promoted by the early adoption of county superintendeney, 
as provided in a bill on that subject now pending in one branch 
of the General Assembly. I therefore earnestly recommend the 
consideration and passage of the bill. 

The commissioner of common schools is required, in the dis- 
charge of his duties, to pay out each year, for traveling expenses, 
about $700. The propriety of refunding to him, out of the State 
treasury, his traveling expenses, will probably not be called in 
question. 

During the last summer, a cattle disease, commonly known as 
the Spanish or Texas cattle fever, occasioned much alarm in the 
grazing counties of the State, and in a few localities caused se- 
riousloss, On the recommendation of the State board of agri- 
culture, in the absence of effective legislation, it was deemed 
proper to appoint commissioners to take such measures as the 
law authorized to prevent the spread of the disease. A procla- 
mation was issued to prevent, as far as practicable, the introduc- 
tion, movement, or transportation of diseased cattle within the 
limits (if the State. The railroad companies and the owners of 
l took promptly complied with the requirements referred to, and 






ELECTED GOVERNOR OP OHIO. 77 



the injury sustained by the cattle interest was happily not ex- 
tensive. It is believed that, upon investigation, it will be found 
necessary to confer, by law, upon a board of commissioners ap- 
pointed for that purpose, or upon the executive committee of the 
State board of agriculture, power to "stamp out" the disease 
wherever it appears, by destroying all infected cattle, and to pro- 
hibit or regulate the transportation or movement of stock within 
the State during .the prevalence of the disease. To the end that 
proper investigation may be had, I respectfully recommend that 
authority be given to appoint five commissioners to attend a 
meeting of commissioners of other States, to be held for the con- 
sideration of this subject, at Springfield, Illinois, on the 1st of 
December next — said commissioners to report the results of their 
investigation in time for action by the present General Assem- 
bly. 

I submit to your consideration the importance of providing 
for a thorough and comprehensive geological survey of the 
State. Many years ago a partial survey was prosecuted under 
many difficulties and embarrassments, which was fruitful of val- 
uable results. It is, beyond doubt, that such a work as it is now 
practicable to carry out will, by making known the mining, 
manufacturing, and agricultural resources of the State, lead to 
their development to an extent which will, within a few years, 
amply reimburse the State for its cost. 

The annual report of pardons granted and the commutations of 
the sentences of convicts required by law; a statement in detail 
of the expenditure of the governor's contingent fund ; the semi- 
annual report of the commissioners of the sinking fund, for 
May ; copies of proclamations issued during the last year ; and 
an acknowledgment of the presentation to the State of several 
of the portraits of former governors of Ohio, are transmitted 
herewith. 

The most important subject of legislation which, in my judg- 
ment, requires the attention of the General Assembly at its 
present session, relates to the prevention of frauds upon the 
elective franchise. Intelligent men of all parties are persuaded 
that at the recent important State and National elections great 
abuses of the right of suffrage were practiced. I am not pre- 
pared to admit that the reports commonly circulated and be- 
lieved in regard to such abuses, would, so far as the elections in 



7^ LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

< faioare concerned, be fully sustained by a thorough investiga- 
tion of ill'' facts. Butitis not doubted that even at the elec- 
tion- in our own Stat." frauds were perpetrated to such an ex- 
tout thai all good citizens earnestly desire that effective meas- 
ures may be adopted by you to prevent their repetition. No 
elaborate attempt to portray the consequences of this evil is re- 
quired. If it is allowed to increase, the confidence of the peo- 
ple in the purity of elections will be lost, and the exercise of the 
li-ht of suffrage will be neglected. To corrupt the ballot box 
is to destroy our free institutions. Let all good citizens, there- 
fore, unite in enacting and enforcing laws which will secure hon- 
esl elections. 

I submit to your judgment the propriety of such amendments 
to the election laws as will provide, first, for the representation 
of minorities in the boards of the judges and clerks of the elec- 
tions; and second, for the registration of all the lawful voters 
in each township, ward, and election precinct, prior to the 
election. 

That the boards of elections ought to be so constituted that 
minorities as well as majorities will have afair representation in 
them, is so plainly just that in some parts of the State, even in 
times of the highest political excitement, such representation 
has been obtained, in the absence of law, by arrangement be- 
tween the committees of the rival political parties. It is not 
probable that any mode of selecting judges and clerks of elec- 
tions can be adopted which will, in every case, accomplish this 
object. But in all cases where the strength of the minority is 
half, or nearly half as great as that of the majority, the desired 
representation of the, minority may be insured with sufficient 
certainty by several different plans. For example, it may be 
provided that at the election of the three judges who are to de- 
cide all questions at the polls, each elector may be allowed to 
vote for two candidates only, and that the three candidates 
having the highest number of votes shall be declared elected, 
and in like manner that, at the election of the two clerks of elec- 
tions, each elector may vote for one candidate only, and that 
the two candidates receiving the highest number of votes shall 
i e declared elected. 

I do not lay much stress on the particular plan here suggested, 
bul your attention is invited to the importance of a fair repre- 



ELECTED G0VERE0R OP OHIO. 70 

sentation of the minority in all boards of elections, not doubt- 
ing that your wisdom will be able to devise a suitable measure 
to accomplish it. 

All parts of the State of Ohio are now so closely connected 
with each other, and with other States, by lines of railway, that 
great and constantly increasing facilities are afforded for the 
perpetration of the class of frauds on the elective franchise, 
commonly known as "colonizing." Jn the cities, men called 
"repeaters," it is said, are paid wages according to the number 
of unlawful votes they succeed in casting at the same election. 

The increase of population adds to the difficulty of detecting 
and preventing fraudulent voting, in whatever mode it may be 
practiced. It is manifestly impossible, amid the hurry and ex- 
citement of an election, that the legal right to vote, of every 
person who may offer his ballot, should be fully and fairly in- 
vestigated and decided. The experience of many of the older 
States has proved that this can best be done at some period prior 
to the election, so as to give to every legal voter, in an election 
precinct, an opportunity to challenge the claim of any person 
whose right is deemed questionable. Laws to accomplish this 
have been in force in several other States for many years, and 
have been carried out successfully and with the general approval 
of the people. Believing that an act providing for the registra- 
tion of all legal voters is the most effective remedy yet devised 
for the prevention of frauds on the sacred right of suffrage, and 
that a registry law can be so framed that it will deprive no citi- 
zen, either native born or naturalized, of his just rights, I re- 
spectfully recommend to your earnest consideration the pro- 
priety of enacting such a law. 

The comprehensive geological survey of the State 
recommended in this message was promptly brought 
about through the able co-operation of the Horn 
Alfred E. Lee, representing Delaware county in the 
House of Representatives, who drew up and reported 
a bill on February 9, 1869, making provision for the 
important object in view. Through the intelligent 
activity of Governor Hayes and Representative Lee, 



80 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

the bill became a law, April 2, 1869. The thorough 
scientific survey of the State, since completed undei] 
the supervision of Professors Newbury, Andrews, an( 
Orton, has been of immeasurable value in the way ofl] j 
developing the mineral resources of Ohio. 

Governor Hayes in this message demands laws' 
to secure honest elections, because " to corrupt the. 
ballot-box is to destroy onr free institutions." He] 
recommends laws securing the representation ofilj 
minorities on election boards, and advocates stringent 
registry laws. 

In the second annual message, delivered at the close 
of his first term, which we give below, he recommends I 
increased powers to the State board of charities ; bet- 
ter provision for the chronic* insane ; the establish- 
ment of a State agricultural college ; the founding of 
a home for soldiers' orphans, and restoring the right of 
suffrage to soldiers in the national asylum, to college 
students, and others who had been disfranchised under 
Democratic legislation. He urged also the ratification 
by Ohio of the Fifteenth Amendment. "We shall 
speak of the gratifying result of these recommenda- 
tions in our next chapter. 

/•', Uow-t 'itizens of the General Assembly : 

In obedience to the constitution, I proceed to lay before you 
the condition of the affairs of the State government, and to re- 
commend such measures as seem to me expedient. 

The balance in the State treasury on the 15th of November, 
1SG8 was $570,120.75; the receipts during the last fiscal year 
were $4,781,614.49 ; making the total amount of available funds 
in the treasury during the year ending November 15, 1869, 
$5,351,735.24. 

The disbursements during the year have been $4,913,675.10, 



ELECTED GOVERNOR OF OHIO. 81 

which sum has been paid out of the treasury from the several 
funds as follows, viz : 

General revenue fund $1,577,221 18 

Canal fund 41,783 74 

National road fund 22,069 69 

Sinking fund 1,775,938 52 

Common school fund 1,496,633 80 

Bank redemption fund 28 17 

Total $4,913,675 10 

Leaving a balance in the treasury, November 15, 1869, of 
$438,060.14. 

The estimates of the auditor of State of receipts and expendi- 
tures for the current year are as follows : 

Estimated receipts from all sources, including bal- 
ances $4,791,144 50 

Estimated disbursements for all purposes 4,477,899 60 

Leaving an estimated balance in the treas- 
ury November 15, 1870, of. $313,244 90 

The amount of the public funded debt of the State, Novem- 
ber 15, 1868, was $10,532,675.43. During the last year the fund 
commissioners have redeemed of the various loans $516,093.57, 
and have invested in loans not yet due $160,643.59, leaving the 
total debt yet to be provided for $9,855,938.27. 

The whole amount of taxes, including delinquencies, collecti- 
ble under State laws during the year 1809 was $21,006,332.44. 
The auditor of State reports the total amount of taxes, including 
delinquencies, collectible during the current year at $22,810,- 
675.84, an increase of the taxes of 1870 over 1869 of $1,804,353.40. 

In 1869 there was collected for the sinking fund, to be applied 
to the payment of the principal and interest of the State debt, 
the sum of $1,370,101.12. In the present year there will be col- 
lected for the same purpose the sum of $808,826.61, or $561,275.51 
less than was collected last year. 

A large proportion of the taxes collected from the people are 
for county, city, and other local purposes, and do not pass 
through the State treasury, but are disbursed within the coun- 
ties where they are collected. During the current year the taxes, 
exclusive of delinquencies, to be collected for all State purposes 



82 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 



except for the common school fund, amount to $2,542,025.27, 1 
while $18,187,400.92 are to be collected for local purposes. 

The foregoing statements from the report of the auditor of 
State show that the taxation of this year for State purposes other {I 
than for payments on the principal and interest of the State |l 
debt exceeds the taxation of last year for the same purposes by Mi 
the sum of $609,601.50, and that taxation for local purposes this ! 
year exceeds that of last year for the same purposes by the sum i 1 
of $1 ,695,725.38. The local taxes this year are about 44 per cent, 
greater than they were three years ago, and are 10 per cent, 
greater than they were last year. 

The increase of taxation for State purposes is in part due to 
the amount collected for the asylum building fund, which ex- 
ceeds the amount required last year for building purposes by 
almost $300,000. Making due allowance for this, the important 
fact remains that both State and local taxes have largely in- 
creased. 

A remedy for this evil can only be had through the General 
Assembly. The most important measures to prevent this rapid 
increase of taxation, which have heretofore been recommended, 
are a revision of the financial system of the State in accordance 
with bills prepared by a board of commissioners appointed for 
that pui'pose, in pursuance of an act passed March 18, 1867; 
short sessions of the General Assembly ; adequate fixed salaries 
for all State, county, and municipal officers, without perquisites; 
and definite and effectual limitations upon the power of county 
commissioners, city councils, and other local authorities to levy 
taxes and contract debts. 

The constitution makes it the duty of the legislature to restrict 
the powers of taxation, borrowing money, and the like, so as to 
]hi vent their abuse. I respectfully suggest that the present 
laws conferring these powers on local authorities require exten- 
sive modification, in order to comply with this constitutional 
provision. Two modes of limiting these powers have the sanc- 
tion of experience. All large expenditures should meet the 
approval of those who are to bear their burden. Let all extraor- 
dinary expenditures therefore be submitted to a vote of the 
people, and n<> tax be levied unless approved by a majority of 
all the voters of the locality to be affected by the tax, at a 
special election, the number of voters to be ascertained by ref- 



ELECTED GOVERNOR OF OHIO. 83 



erencc to the votes cast at the State election next preceding 
such special election. Another mode is to limit the rate of tax- 
ation which may be levied and the amount of debt which may- 
be incurred. It has been said that with such restrictions upon 
the powers of local authorities the legislature will be importuned 
and its time wasted in hearing applications for special legisla- 
tion. The ready answer to all such applications by local author- 
ities will be to refer them to their own citizens for a decision of 
the question. The facility with which affirmative votes can be 
obtained under the pressure of temporary excitement upon 
propositions authorizing indebtedness may require further re- 
strictions upon the power to borrow money. It is therefore 
suggested, for your consideration, to limit the amount of debt 
for a single purpose, and the total amount for all purposes 
which any local authority may contract to a certain percentage 
of the taxable property of such locality. 

The evils here considered are not new. Fourteen years ago 
Governor Medill, in his annual message, used the following lan- 
guage, which is as applicable to county and municipal affairs 
now as it was when it was written : " The irresponsible and ex- 
travagant system of administration which prevails in some of 
our counties and cities furnishes the principal cause for the ex- 
actions which are so generally complained of. There public 
contracts are given to favorites, which occasion the most lavish 
' expenditures. There- also we find officers with incomes which 
shock all correct ideas of public compensation. These things 
have their effect upon the general tone of public morals. 
County reform is a duty enjoined by every consideration of 
public virtue." 

The whole of this important subject is commended to your 
candid consideration. 

The management of the affairs of the penitentiary, during the 
past year, has been good; discipline has been maintained; 
under kind and judicious treatment the prisoners have been in- 
dustrious and orderly, and the pecuniary results are satisfactory. 
The number of prisoners, on the 31st of October, 1869, was 974, 
and the number of convicts admitted during the year ending 
on that day was 347. This is a decrease, compared with the 



84 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

ding year, of 27 in the number of convicts admitted, and 
of 07 in the number confined in the penitentiary. 

The earnings during the year ending October 31, 

were.?. $175,063 06 

The expenses wore 143,635 83! 



Excess of earnings over expenditures $32,027 23 

Last year the earnings were $171,037 45 

The expenses were 141,794 95 

And the excess of earnings over expenses 

were $29,242 50 

A large proportion of the convicts, when admitted, are quite 
young. The age of about one-third does not exceed twenty-one 
years. More than two-thirds of the inmates of the prison are 
now under thirty years of age. It will occur to any one who 
considers these facts that, under our system of prison discipline, 
too little effort has heretofore been made to reform these young 
men. A high authority has said, " No human being is so de- 
based and wicked that he can not be reclaimed." It is believed 
that, under a wise system, the young, at least, can be reformed 
and prepared for useful and worthy citizenship. The present 
system has two capital defects — the mingling in intimate associ- 
ation of the young with the hardened criminals, and the failure 
to educate the convicts in habits of thrift and self-control. The 
defects arc in the system. The convict, when he leaves the peni- 
tentiary, is exposed to greater temptations than ever before, and 
the result of his prison life is that he has less power to resist 
evil influences, and, too often, less disposition to resist them. I 
do not enlarge upon the objections to the present system; it is 
noi claimed to be reformatory. In a recentreport, the directors 
said : " The great mass of convicts still leave the penitentiary 
apparently as hardened and as dangerous to the State as they 
were when they were sentenced." The vital question is, how to 
remove this reproach on our penal legislation. In considering 
it, I commend to you the remarks of the board of State chari- 
ties on the lii li convict system. The distinguishing merit of 
that system is. thai " i! enlists the co-operation of the prisoner 
in In own amendment, withoul withholding from him the pun- 



ELECTED GOVERNOR OF OHIO. 



lishment due to his crime." If the adoption of that system, with 
such modifications as our condition requires, is deemed an ex- 
periment which it is inexpedient for the State to try until its 
advantages are better understood, I submit that the least that 
[[ought now to be attempted is to provide for a classification of 
'convicts, so as to separate beginners in crime from hardened of- 
fenders. Whether this can best be done by alterations and an 
i extension of the present penitentiary or by the erection of a new 
one, is for your wisdom to determine. 

In several other States voluntary associations have been 
formed to provide for, encourage, and furnish employment to 
discharged convicts, and their efforts have been of incalculable 
benefit to this unfortunate class. If a similar association should 
be formed by the benevolent citizens of Ohio, they will reason- 
ably expect to receive proper assistance from the General Assem- 
bly, and in that expectation I trust they will not be disap- 
pointed. 

The total number of persons of school age in the State, in 
1869, was officially reported at 1,02S,675 — an increase of 11,108 
over the previous year. The total number enrolled in the pub- 
lic schools in 1869 was 740,382 — an increase of 8,610 over the year 
1868. The average daily attendance in the public schools in 
1869 was 434,865— an increase over 1868 of 24,144. 

The total taxes for schools, sohcol buildings, and all other pur- 
poses, the present fiscal year, is $6,578,196.83 — an increase over 
the taxation of the previous fiscal year of $616,795.68. Of this 
increase of taxation, the sum of $17,833.86 is in the State taxa- 
tion for school purposes, and the sum of $598,991.82 is the in- 
crease of local school taxation. 

The State commissioner of common schools, in his report, will 
recommend the adoption of county superintendency, the sub- 
stitution of township boards of education to provide for the 
present system of township and sub-district boards, a codifica- 
tion of school laws and other important measures, to which your 
attention is respectfully called. 

Prior to the organization of the board of state charities in 
1867, there was no provision for a systematic examination of the 
benevolent and correctional institutions under the conti'ol of the 
State and local authorities. The members of the board serve 
without pecuniary compensation. It is simple justice to them 



8C LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. IIAYES. 

to say that they have faithfully performed the thankless task of 
investigating and reporting the defects in the system and in the 
administration of our charitable and penal laws, and have fur- 
nish. •<! in their reports information and suggestions of greatt 
value. If it is true that an abuse exposed is half corrected, it t 
would be difficult to overestimate their work. They have, their 
reports show, discovered abuses and cruelties practiced, under 
color of law, in the midst of communities noted for intelligence 
ami virtue, which would disgrace any age. Let the board be 
granted increased powers and facilities for the discharge of their 
duties, and it will afford security — perhaps the best attainable — 
to the people of the State, that the munificent provision which 
the laws make for the poor and unfortunate, will not be wasted 
or misapplied by the officials who are charged with its distribu- 
tion. 

During the last year more than nine hundred persons, classed 
af incurably insane, have been lodged in the county infirmaries, 
and almost one hundred have been confined in the county jails. 
Besides these a large number of the same class of unfortunates 
have been taken care of by relatives or friends. The State 
should no longer postpone making suitable provision for these 
unfortunate people. The treatment they receive in the infirm- 
aries ami jails is always of necessity unsuited to their condition, 
and is often atrocious. To provide for them, I would not re- 
commend an increase of the number of asylums for the insane. 
It is believed by those best acquainted with the subject, that 
both economy and the welfare of the patients require that the 
chronic insane should be provided for by additions to the asy- 
lums already built, or to those which are now building. It is 
probable that in this way such patients can be supported at less 
expense to the people of the State than in infirmaries and 
jails. However this may be, their present condition impera- 
tively demands, and, I trust, will receive, the serious considera- 
tion of t he General Assembly. Although commonly classed as 
incurable, it is quite certain that, by proper treatment, in suit- 
able institutions, the condition of all of them will be vastly im- 
proved, and, it may well be hoped, that many of them can be 
entirely cured. 

The expediency of establishing an asylum for the cure of ine- 
briates lias not been much considered in Ohio. The encourag- 



ELECTED GOVERNOR OF OHIO. 87 



ing results which are reported by the officers in charge of the 
State inebriate asylum of New York, induce me to recommend 
that the General Assembly provide for a full investigation of the 
subject. 

The agricultural and mechanical college fund, created by the 
sale of land-script issued to Ohio by the National government, 
amounted, on the first instant, to $404,911.37.1. The State ac- 
cepted the grant out of which this fund has been created, Feb- 
ruary 10, 1864, and is bound by the terms of acceptance, as modi- 
fied by Congress, to provide " not less than one college on or be- 
fore July 2, 1872, where the leading object shall be, without ex- 
cluding other scientific and classical studies, and including mili- 
tary tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to 
agriculture and the mechanic arts." The manner in which this 
fund shall be disposed of has been amply considered by preced- 
ing General Assemblies, and in the messages of my predecessors 
in the executive office. I respectfully urge that such action be 
had as will render this fund available for the important purposes 
for which it was granted. It is not probable that further delay 
will furnish additional information on any of the importaut 
questions involved in its disposition. Much time and attention 
has been given to the subject of the location of the college. No 
doubt it will be of great benefit to the county in which it shall 
be established, but the main object of desire with the people of 
the State can be substantially accomplished at any one of the 
places which have been prominently named as the site of the 
college. I therefore trust that the friends of education will not 
allow differences upon a question of comparatively small impor- 
tance to the people at large longer to postpone the establish- 
ment of the institution, in compliance with the obligation of the 
State. 

A large part of the work required to complete the " Soldiers' 
Record," in pursuance of an act passed March 17, 1864, has al- 
ready been done, at an expense of about $8,000, and the propriety 
of making an appropriation sufficient to enable the adjutant- 
general to complete it is respectfully suggested for your consid- 
eration. 

During the war for the Union, the people of this State ac- 
knowledged their obligation to support the families of their ab- 
sent soldiers, and undertook to meet it, not as a charity, but as 



88 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

a partial compensation justly due for services rendered. The 
Nation is saved, and the obligation to care for the orphans of the 
men who died to save it still remains to be fulfilled. It is offi- 
cially estimated that three hundred soldiers' orphans, during the 
past year, have been inmates of the county infirmaries of the 
State. It is the uniform testimony of the directors of county 
infirmaries that those institutions are wholly unfit for children; 
thai in a majority of cases they are sadly neglected; and that 
even in the best infirmaries the children are subject to the worst 
moral influences. Left by the death of their patriotic fathers in 
this deplorable condition, it is the duty of the State to assume 
their guardianship, and to provide support, education, and 
homes to all who need them. The people of Ohio regret that 
this duty has been so long neglected. I do not doubt that it will 
afford you great gratification to give to this subject early and 
favorable attention. 

All agree that a republican government will fail, unless the 
purity of elections is preserved. Convinced that great abuses 
of the elective franchise can not be prevented under existing 
legislation, I have heretofore recommended the enactment of a 
registry law, and also of some appropriate measure to secure to 
the minority, as far as practicable, a representation upon all 
boards of elections. There is much opposition to the enactment 
of a registry law. Without yielding my own settled convictions 
in favor of such a law, I content myself, in this communication, 
with urging upon your attention a measure of reform in the 
manner of conducting elections, the importance and justice of 
which no one ventures to deny. The conduct of the officers 
whose duty at elections it is to receive and count the ballots, 
and to make returns of the result, ought to be above suspicion. 
This can rarely be the case where they all belong to the same 
political party. A fair representation of the minority will go 
far, not only to prevent fraud, but, what is almost of equal im- 
portance, remove the suspicion of fraud. I do not express any 
preference for any particular plan of securing minority repre- 
ktion in the boards of judges and clerks of elections. Va- 
rious modes have been suggested, and it will not be difficult to 
ado],! a means of attaining the desired result which will har- 
moilize with our system of election law. 

The re-enactment of the law securing to the disabled volun- 



ELECTED GOVERNOR OF OHIO. 89 

teer soldiers who are inmates of the National asylum, near Day- 
ton, the right of suffrage in the county and township in which 
said asylum is located, which was repealed April 17, 1868, and 
the repeal of the legislation of the last General Assembly, im- 
posing special restrictions upon the exercise of the right of suf- 
frage by students and by citizens having a visible admixture of 
African blood, are measures so clearly demanded by impartial 
justice and public sentiment that no argument in their support 
is deemed necessary. 

I transmit herewith the report required by law of the pardons 
granted during the year ending November 15, 1869, a report of 
the expenditures of the Governor's contingent fund, copies of 
proclamations issued during the year, and several communica- 
tions accompanying gifts to the State of portraits of former Gov- 
ernors. 

The most important measure which it will be your duty to 
consider at your present session is the proposed amendment to 
the constitution of the United States. I do not feel called upon 
to discuss its merits. The great body of that part of the people 
of Ohio who sustain the laws for the reconstruction of the States 
lately in rebellion believe that the Ofteenth amendment is just 
and wise. Many other citizens who would not support the 
amendment if it was presented as the inauguration of a new 
policy, in view of the fact that impartial suffrage is already es- 
tablished in the States most largely interested in the question, 
now regard the amendment as the best mode of getting rid of a 
controversy which ought no longer to remain unsettled. Believ- 
ing that the measure is right, and that the people of Ohio ap- 
prove it, I earnestly recommend the ratification of the fifteenth 
amendment to the constitution of the United States. 



90 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. IIAYES. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

SECOND ELECTION AS GOVERNOR. 

Rcnomination — Democratic Platform — Nomination of 
Rosccrans — Declines — Pendleton Nominated — Hayes 
at Wilmington — Election — Second Inaugural — Civil 
Service Reform — Short Addresses — Letters — Annual 
Message. — Democratic Estimate of it — Davidson Foun- 
tain Address — Message of 1872 — Work Accomplished. 

The State Convention of the Republican party of 
Ohio, which met at Columbus, June 28, 1869, nomin- 
ated Governor Hayes for a second term by acclama- 
tion. 

So acceptable was his two years' administration of 
the chief executive office of the State, that no com- 
petitor entered the lists against him or contended 
with him for the nomination. On the question of 
his renomination the unanimity in his party was abso- 
lute. He appeared before the convention, in response 
1< i its invitation, and delivered the speech printed in 
the Appendix to this volume, which sounded the key- 
note of the campaign. "We ask the reader to turn, at 
this point, to this speech, as it is impossible to epito- 
mize it without tilling as much space as is filled by 
the speech itself. The well-founded and well-sup- 
pi >rted charges he made against the Democratic Legis- 
lature of the State brought upon him the savage 
Btrictures of the Democratic partisan press, showing 
that lie had penetrated the weak point in his adversa- 
ry ' omewhat defenseless defenses. 



SECOND ELECTION AS GOVERNOR. 91 

The Republican platform condemned the reckless 
expenditures of the Legislature, its efforts to disfran- 
chise soldiers, students, and all having African blood 
in their veins, and squarely declared for the ratifica- 
tion of the fifteenth amendment. 

The Democratic Convention, which assembled July 
7, 1869, denounced the fifteenth amendment, and had 
much to say about the reserved rights of the States. 
The platform contained these resolutions, which sound, 
at this day, like an inscription from the tombs of tho 
Ptolemys : 

" Resolved, That the exemption from tax of over $2,500,000,000 
in government bonds and securities is unjust to the people and 
ought not to be tolerated; and that we are opposed to any 
appropriation for the payment of interest on the bonds until 
they are made subject to taxation. 

" Itesolved, That the claims of the bondholders, that the bonds 
which were bought with greenbacks, and the principal of which 
is by law payable in currency, should nevertheless be paid in 
gold, is unjust and extortionate; and, if persisted in, will inev- 
itably force upon the people the cmestion of repudiation." 

Here we have the bald proposition to repudiate the 
interest on the public debt unless it is taxed contrary 
to law, as made known by repeated decisions of the 
Supreme Court of the United States ; and secondly, 
the direct threat to repudiate the principal of the Na- 
tional debt unless it is paid off in broken promises to 
pay. As the greenback is simply a debt or a due bill, 
this paying debts with debts was a patentable discov- 
ery in the science of finauce. Taken in connection 
with the declaration of Vallandigham in the canvass 
before, that the whole bonded debt should be imme- 
diately "paid" in greenbacks, the resolution simply 



92 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HATES. 






meant that the war debt should not be paid at all. 
This robbing the men whose money saved the Repub- 
lic was not acceptable then to the farmers and laborers 
of Ohio, and will probably not now be more acceptable 
to the capitalists of New York. It is well, however, 
to recall the antecedents of a party that first tried to get 
into power through discreditable expedients, before re- 
sorting to a declaration of honest principles in finance. 

The convention took a " new departure," and, put- 
ting aside Ranney and Pendleton, nominated General 
\V. S. Rosecrans for governor, who was then absent 
from the country. This nomination was mainly 
brought about through the zealous efforts of Messrs. 
Vallandigham, Callen, and Baber. 

The opinions General Rosecrans entertained of his 
new-found friends were not favorable. In a letter 
dated February 3, 1863, from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 
General Rosecrans, in speaking of the slave-holding 
insurgents, had used this language: 

" Wherever they have the power they drive before them into 
their ranks the Southern people, and they would also drive us. 
Trust them not. Were they able they would invade and destroy 
us without mercy. Absolutely assured of these things, I am 
amazed that any one could think of ' jjeaee on any terms.' 

"He who entertains the sentiment is fit only to be a slave; he 
who utters it at this time is, moreover, a traitor to his country, 
who deserves the scorn and contempt of all honorable men." 

Rosecrans declined the nomination, and George II. 
Pendleton, after just enough hesitation to impart a 
proper value to his consent, consented to fill the vacant 
place at the head of the ticket. 

Governor Hayes, aided by Senator Morton, opened 
the ;uti\c campaign in a speech delivered at Wilming- 



SECOND ELECTION AS GOVEKNOR. 93 

ton, August 12, devoted mainly to the discussion of 
National and State finances. In the course of this 
speech Governor Hayes said : 

" When the rebellion broke out, what was its chance for suc- 
cess? It had just one — a divided North. A divided North was 
its only chance. A united North was bound to crush the rebel- 
lion within two years after the firing on Sumter. A divided 
North encouraged the aristocratic enemies of free government 
in every land to build Alabamas and Shenandoahs that scourged 
the seas and swept away our commerce from the ocean. A di- 
vided North encouraged the Ernperor of France to proclaim to 
everybody that sooner or later he proposed to intervene. A di- 
vided North encouraged rebel leaders to believe that sooner or 
later our armies must disband and come home. 

"Now, I say to you that Pendleton was the selected and 
chosen leader of the Peace Party of the Northwest — the leader 
of the party that made a divided North. They talk of the debt 
and the great burden of taxation. We talked sadly of the loss 
of valuable lives that went down in the storm of battle. I say 
to you that the fact of a divided North doubled the debt and 
doubled the loss of valuable lives." 

The campaign was an important one to Mr. Pendle- 
ton. Had he been successful he would undoubtedly 
have been the Democratic candidate for the presi- 
dency. A leading journal of the State said : " The 
gubernatorial contest is but a side-show. "We are 
already entering upon the next presidential canvass, 
and Ohio is the key to the position." Nevertheless, 
Republican success was too certain to make the con- 
test so warm a one as that of two years before. The 
State had been organized by townships and school 
districts and polled. So accurate was this poll that 
predictions as to the result, sealed and filed a week prior 
to the election by each of the members of the Republi- 



94 LIFE OP RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 



can State Executive Committee, the writer being one, 
varied only from two hundred to three thousand votes 
of the final result. Hayes' majority in '69 was 7,506— 
a little above the average majority. The canvass was 
fought largely upon the issue of the greenback pay- 
ment of the debt. The Pendleton plan of indirect 
repudiation failed, and the rag infant was decently in- 
terred, to await an inglorious resurrection. 

Governor Hayes was reiuaugurated January -10, 
1870, on which occasion he delivered the following 
address : 

Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives : 

In the annual message transmitted to the General Assembly 
a few days ago, a brief exposition of the condition of the State 
government was given, and such measures were recommended 
as the public good seemed to me to require. It will therefore 
not be expected that on this occasion I should again discuss 
subjects pertaining to the usual routine of legislation. 

The most important questions concerning State affairs which 
in the ordinary course of events will engage the attention of the 
people of Ohio, during the term of office upon which I now en- 
ter, are those which relate to the action of a Constitutional Con- 
vention authorized to be called by a vote of the people at the 
October election in 1871. The present organic law provides for 
submitting to the electors of the State, once in twenty years, the 
question of holding "a convention to revise, alter, or amend the 
constitution." It is no disparagement of the work of the last 
Constitutional Convention to say that experience has already 
demon strated the wisdom of this provision. It would be strange, 
indeed, if the last eighteen years had developed no defects in 
tlic constitution of 1851. 

Ii is, perhaps, not improper at this time to call attention to 
"in.' of tin' amendments of the existing fundamental law which 
tin- next Constitutional Convention will probably be required to 
consider. 

The provision of the present constitution which prohibits the 



SECOND ELECTION AS GOVERNOR. 95 



General Assembly from authorizing "any county, city, town, or 
township, by vote of its citizens or otherwise," from giving aid to 
any "company, corporation, or association," was designed to 
remedy an evil of the gravest magnitude. Unlimited power to 
authorize counties, cities, and towns to subscribe to the stock of 
railroad companies had burdened the people of the State with in- 
debtedness and taxation to an extent which threatened bank- 
ruptcy. Experience has shown, however, that the clauses of 
the constitution on this subject are so sweeping that they are 
almost equivalent to a prohibition of the construction of rail- 
roads, except where those who control the existing railroad lines 
furnish the means. In many localities, the people are thus de- 
prived of the only artificial instrumentality for intercourse with 
other parts of the State and country which is now regarded as 
valuable. By reason of it, important sources of wealth in large 
sections of the State remain undeveloped. It is believed that 
amendments can be framed, under which effective local aid can 
be furnished for the building of railroads, and which, at the same 
time, shall be so guarded and limited as to prevent a dangerous 
abuse of the power. 

For many years political influence and political services have 
been essential qualifications for employment in the civil service, 
whether State or National. As a general rule, such employ- 
ments are regarded as terminating with the defeat of the politi- 
cal party under which they began. All political parties have 
adopted this rule. In many offices the highest qualifications are 
only obtained by experience. Such are the positions of the war- 
den of the penitentiary and his subordinates, and the superin- 
tendents of asylums and reformatories and their assistants. 
But the rule is applied to these as well as to other offices and 
employments. A change in the political character of the execu- 
tive and legislative branches of the government is followed by a 
change of the officers and employes in all of the departments 
and institutions of the State. Efficiency and fidelity to duty do 
not prolong the employment; unfitness and neglect of duty do 
not always shorten it. The evils of this system in State affairs 
are, perhaps, of small moment compared with those which pre- 
vail under the same system in the transaction of the busines3 
of the National government. But at no distant day they are 
likely to become serious, even in the administration of State af- 



96 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD 13. HAYES. 



foirs. Tlif number of persons employed in the various offices 
:m<l institutions of the State must increase, under the most eco- 
nomical management, in equal ratio with the growth of our 
population and business. 

A radical reform in the civil service of the general govern- 
ment has been proposed. The plan is to make qualifications, 
and not political services and influence, the chief test in deter- 
mining appointments, and to give subordinates in the civil ser- 
vice the same permanency of place which is enjoyed by officers 
of the army and navy. The introduction of this reform will be 
attended with some difficulties. But in revising our State con- 
stitution, if this object is kept constantly in view, there is little 
reason to doubt that it can be successfully accomplished. 

Our judicial system is plainly inadequate to the wants of the 
people of the State. Extensive alterations of existing provis- 
ions must be made. The suggestions I desire to present in this 
connection are as to the manner of selecting judges, their terms 
of office, and their salaries. It is fortunately true that the judges 
of our courts have heretofore been, for the most part, lawyers of 
learning, ability, and integrity. But it must be remembered 
that the tremendous events and the wonderful progress of the 
last few years are working great changes in the condition of our 
society. Hitherto population has been sparse, property not un- 
equally distributed, and the bad elements which so frequently 
control large cities have been almost unknown in our State. 
But with a dense i^opulation crowding into towns and cities, 
with vast wealth accumulating in the hands of a few persons or 
corporations, it is to be apprehended that the time is coming 
when judges elected by popular vote, for short official terms, and 
poorly paid, will not possess the independence required to pro- 
tect individual rights. Under the National constitution, judges 
are nominated by the executive and confirmed by the Senate, 
ami hold office during good behavior. It is worthy of consid- 
eration whether a return to the system established by the fathers 
is not the dictate of the highest prudence. I believe that a sys- 
tem under which judges are so appointed, for long terms and 
with adequate salaries, will afford to the citizen the amplest pos- 
sible security thai impartial justice will be administered by an 
independent judiciary. 

I forbear to consider further at this time the interesting ques- 



SECOND. ELECTION AS GOVERNOR. 97 

tions which will arise in the revision and amendment of the 
constitution. Convinced of the soundness of the maxim that 
"that government is best which governs least," I would resist 
the tendency common to all systems to enlarge the functions of 
government. The law should touch the rights, the business, and 
the feelings of the citizen at as few points as is consistent with 
the preservation of order and the maintenance of justice. If 
every department of government is kept within its own sphere, 
and every officer performs faithfully his own duty without mag- 
nifying his office, harmony, efficiency, and economy will prevail. 

Under the providence of God, the people of this State have 
greatly prospered. But in their prosperity they can not forget 
,: him who hath borne the battle, nor his widow, nor his or- 
phan," nor the thousands of other sufferers in our midst, who 
are entitled to sympathy and relief. They are to be found 
in our hospitals, our infirmaries, our asylums, our prisons, and in 
the abodes of the unfortunate and the erring. The Founder of 
our religion, whose spirit should pervade our laws, and animate 
those who enact and those who enforce them, by His teaching 
and His example, has admonished us to deal with all the victims 
of adversity as the children of our common Father. With this 
duty performed, we may confidently hope that for long ages to 
come our country will continue to be the home of freedom and 
the refuge of the oppressed. 

Grateful to the people of Ohio for the honors they have con- 
ferred, I approach a second term in the executive office, deeply 
solicitous to discharge, as far as in me lies, the obligations and 
duties which their partial judgment has imposed. 

The most striking part of the address is that which 
relates to reform in the civil service of the State 
and the Nation. Governor Hayes proposes to reform 
the civil service of the State by means of a constitu- 
tional provision in a new State constitution. This 
method of reformation is radical, and, we believe, orig- 
inal. It suggests the pertinent query, whether reform 
in the civil service of the Nation can not be best ac- 
complished through a new provision in the National 



08 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

constitution. Can permanency and stability be se- 
cured in the civil service of the Republic in any other 
certain way than by a constitutional amendment? 
Civil service reformers need hardly waste their time 
discussing methods and systems less radical and fund- 
amental. It must be recorded to the honor of Gov- 
ernor Hayes that he, more than six years ago, sug- 
gested the only true solution to the civil service prob- 
lem, by proposing to place that service beyond dis- 
turbance from the fluctuating fortunes of political 
parties. lie has, therefore, been an advanced civil 
service reformer more than the sixteenth of a century ; 
not, like Mr. Tilden, for six months prior to a presi- 
dential election. 

In December, 1869, he wrote to a friend in Congress : 
"We must have a genuine retrenchment and econ- 
omy. The monthly reduction of the debt is of far 
more consetmence than the reduction of taxation in 
any form. I hope, too, you will abolish the franking 
privilege and adopt the general principles of Trum- 
bull's bill and Jeucke's bill. It would please the peo- 
ple and be right and wise." 

It is hardly needful to add that the bills referred to 
were the best civil service bills then before Congress. 

In this same address, the governor boldly declares 
against the heresy of an elective judiciary, and favors 
the system established by Madison, Hamilton, and 
Washington, which has given us a Jay, a Story, and 
a Marshall. 

During the occupancy of his office as executive of 
the State, Governor Hayes, on a vast variety of oc- 
casions, was called upon to deliver speeches and ad- 
dressea on all classes of subjects. These efforts are 



SECOND ELECTION AS GOVERNOR. 99 

all admirable in their way, and give evidences of fine 
literary taste, great good judgment, and what Dick- 
ens called " a sense of the proprieties." 

We can find space for portions only of a few of 
these addresses. In an address of welcome on the 
occasion of the great exposition of textile fabrics, 
held in Cincinnati, in August, 1869, the governor of 
Ohio said : 

" We meet at a most auspicious period in our country's his- 
tory. Our greeting and welcome to citizens of other States aro 
' without any mental reservation whatever.' It is plain that we 
are entering upon an era of good feeling, not known before in 
the lifetime of the present generation. For almost half a cen- 
tury the great sectional bitterness which is now so rajndly and so 
happily disappearing, and which we know can never he revived, 
carried discord, division, and weakness into every enterprise re- 
quiring the united efforts of citizens of different States. Now 
the causes of strife have been swept away, and their last vestiges 
will soon be buried out of sight. Good men will no longer waste 
their strength in mutual crimination or recrimination about the 
past. The people of different sections of our country will here- 
after be able to act, not merely with intelligence and energy, 
but with entire harmony and unity, in any enterprise which 
promises an increase of human welfare and human happiness. 

" This association, then, is working in perfect accord with the 
spirit of the times. The development of new resources, the 
opening of new paths to skill and labor, the discovery of new 
methods, the invention of new machinery and implements, and 
the employment of capital in new and useful pursuits — these are 
the objects which associations like this aim to accomplish. All 
who encourage these things, and who desire to aid in such 
achievements, deserve a hearty welcome wherever they may go, 
and will, I assure you, always find it, as you do now, in the State 
of Ohio." 

Soon after the death of Secretary Stanton, and near 
the beginning of the governor's second term, a meet- 



100 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD 13. HAYES. 

iug of members of the Ohio bar was held in the room 
of the Supreme Court of Ohio, to take action with 
reference to the loss of their former associate and 
friend. On this occasion Governor Hayes said : 

" I shall not undertake to describe the life and character and 
services of Mr. Stanton. Few men — very few men — ever pos- 
sessed such Learning, such intellect, such energy, such courage, 
such will, such honesty, such patriotism, in one word, such man- 
hood, as belonged to him. All of his great powers and qualities 
]]<■ gave to the performance of duty, and with them he gave also 
life itself. 

"Our profession rejoices that Mr. Stanton was an eminent 
lawyer. Our State rejoices that he was her great son. Our 
country and our age may well rejoice that he lived in this age 
and in this country. The members of our profession, the peo- 
ple of our State and of the Nation, and all mankind do honor 
to themselves in striving to do honor to the memory of such a 
man as Edwin M. Stanton." 

It can be readily understood why a robust, positive, 
hard-fighting soldier like Hayes, should so ardently 
give his admiration to a firm-sinewed, iron-nerved, 
masculine man like the great minister of war. 

On the 13th of April, 1870, the colored people of 
Central Ohio celebrated the adoption of the Fifteenth 
Amendment at an immense meeting held in the opera 
house in Columbus. Governor Haj^es, as their chosen 
orator, delivered the following brief address, which 
seems the inspiration of one who has the logic of his- 
tory in his head and humanity in his heart : 

Fellow-Citizens : — We celebrate to-night the final triumph of 

bteous cause, alter a long, eventful, memorable struggle. 

The conflict which Mr. Seward pronounced " irrepressible " at 

ended. The house which was divided against itself, and 

which, therefore, according to Mr. Lincoln, could not stand as it 



SECOND ELECTION AS GOVERNOR. 101 

was, is divided no longer ; and we may now rationally hope that 
under Providence it is destined to stand — long to stand the 
home of freedom, and the refuge of the oppressed of every race 
and of every clime. 

The great leading facts of the. contest are so familiar that I 
need not attempt to recount them. They belong to the history of 
two famous wars — the war of the Revolution and the war of the 
Rebellion — and are part of the story of almost a hundred years 
of civil strife. They began with Bunker Hill and Yorktown, 
with the Declaration of Independence and the adoption of the 
Federal Constitution. They end with Fort Sumter and the fall 
of Richmond, with the Emancipation Proclamation and the 
Anti-Slavery and Equal Rights Amendments to the Constitution 
of the Nation. These long and anxious years were not years of 
unbroken ceaseless warfare. There were periods of lull, of 
truce, of compromise. But every lull was short-lived, every truce 
was hollow, and every compromise, however pure the motives of 
its authors, proved deceitful and vain. There, could be no last- 
ing peace until the great wrong was destroyed, and impartial 
justice established. 

The history of this period is adorned with a long list of illus- 
trious names — with the names of men who were indeed " Solo- 
mons in council and Sampsons in the field." At its beginning 
there were Washington, Franklin, and Hamilton, and their com- 
peers ; and in the last great crisis Providence was equally graci- 
ous, and gave us such men as Lincoln, and Stanton, and George 
II. Thomas. 

All who faithfully bore their part in the great conflict may 
now with grateful hearts rejoice that it is forever ended. 

The newly-made citizens who seem to carry off the lion's share 
of the fruits of the victory — it is especially fit ting and proper that 
they should assemble to congratulate each other, and to be con- 
gratulated by all of us that they now enjoy for the first time 
in full measure the blessings of freedom and manhood. 

Those, also, who have opposed many of the late steps in the 
great progress — it is a satisfaction to know that so large a number 
of them gracefully acquiesce in the decision of the Nation. 

The war of races, which it was so confidently predicted would 
follow the enfranchisement of the colored people — where was it 
in the elections in Ohio last week? In a few localities the old 



102 LIFE OF RUTIIERFORD B. HAYES. 



prejudice and fanaticism made, we hope, their last appearance. 
There was barely enough angry dissent to remind us of the bar- 
barism of slavery which has passed away forever. Generally 
throughout the State, and especially in the cities of Cincinnati, 
Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, and Toledo, where the new ele- 
ment is large, those who strove to avert the result over which we 
rejoice, leaders as well as followers, were conspicuous in setting 
an example of obedience to the law. 

Not the least among the causes for congratulation to-night is 
the confidence we have that the enfranchised people will prove 
worthy of American citizenship. No true patriot wishes to see 
them exhibit a blind and unthinking attachment to mere party; 
but all good men wish to see them cultivate habits of industry and 
thrift, and to exhibit intelligence and virtue, and at every elec- 
tion to be earnestly solicitous to array themselves on the side of 
law and order, liberty and progress, education and religion. 

The following letters, written during 1870, have 
come under our observation. We reproduce them 
because they exhibit to some extent opinions and 
character. 

In one dated March 1, 1870, these passages occur: 

" I also agree with you perfectly on the spoils doctrine. This 
you would know if you had read my last inaugural. I am ghid 
you do not bore yourself with such reading generally, but you are 
in for it now, as I shall send you a copy. I, too, mean to be out 
of politics. The ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment gives 
me the boon of equality before the law, terminates my enlist- 
ment, and discharges me cured." 

Another letter, dated June 2d, in reply to a stranger 
in Baltimore, shows his tender regard for the private 
soldier, whether he be living or dead : 

I acknowledge with great gratification the receipt of your 
letter of the 30th, informing me of your patriotic attention to 
the grave of an Ohio soldier in your citv on Decoration Dav. 



SECOND ELECTION AS GOVERNOR. 103 

Be pleased to accept my thanks for your generous action, and for 
courtesy of your letter." 

To a friend in Congress be writes, on June 13th : 

" You will as astonished as I was by this decision as to the 
right of the soldiers to vote at the Dayton National Asylum. 
But there it is. How can we get rid of it ? Can you pass an act 
of Congress that will avoid it ? 1 feci like saying that the soldiers 
must vote as usual, and test the case again. I merely call your 
attention to it with a view to Congressional action. You recol- 
lect the act ceding jurisdiction expressly provided that residents 
of Ohio retained the right to vote." 

To the president of the Commercial Union of New 
York he wrote, June 20th : 

" I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of 
the 10th instant, inviting me to attend a meeting of the Com- 
mercial Union of the State of New York, to be held in the city 
of Rochester on the 15th of July next, and to express my regret 
that prior engagements will prevent me from being present on 
that occasion. The subject to be considered — cheap transporta- 
tion between the East and West — is of importance to the 
whole country, and especially to the State of Ohio. Earnestly 
hoping that the deliberations of the meeting will greatly pro- 
mote this object, I remain, etc." 

January 3, 1871, Governor Hayes delivered the fol- 
lowing important annual message : 

Fellow-Citizens of the General Assembly : 

The official reports, which the law requires to be annually 
made to the governor, show that the affairs of the various de- 
partments of the State government and of the State institutions 
have been conducted during the past year in a satisfactory manner. 
I shall not attempt to give a synopsis of the facts and figures 
which the reports contain. The most important parts of them 
have been spread before the people of the State by the news- 



104 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 



paper press, and the details which may he desired with a view 
to Legislation can be best obtained from the reports themselves. 

I also refrain from making many recommendations. Believ- 
ing that too frequent changes of the laws and too much legisla- 
tion are serious evils. I respectfully suggest that upon many sub- 
jects it may be well to defer legislation until the people have 
acted upon the question of calling a constitutional convention. 
If such a convention shall be called, it is not improbable that 
the General Assembly will be clothed with powers essentially dif- 
ferent from those conferred by the present fundamental law in 
respect to the judiciary, railroads, intemperance, and many 
other important subjects, and that the legislature itself will be 
so constituted as to secure to minorities a fairer representation 
than they now enjoy. 

The balance in the State treasury on the 15th of November, 
1809, was $438,060.14; the receipts during the year were $4,399,- 
932.53 ; making the total amount of available funds in the treas- 
ury during the year $4,837,992.67. 

The disbursements during the year have been $4,071,954.57; 
leaving a balance in the treasury, November 15, 1870, of $766,- 
038.10. 

The estimates of the auditor of State for the current year are 
as follows : 

Estimated receipts from all sources, including balances, $5,670,- 
205.10: estimated disbursements for all purposes, $5,103,976.01; 
leaving an estimated balance in the treasury, November, 15, 1871, 
of 1506,229.09. 

The public funded debt of the State on the 15th of November, 
1S69, after deducting the amount invested in loans not yet due, 
was $9,855,938.27. During thelast year there has been redeemed 
of the various loans, and invested in loans not yet due, the sum 
of $123,860.36, leaving the total debt due November 15, 1870, 
2,077.91. 

I he fund commissioners were prepared to pay off a larger 
amount of the debt than has been actually discharged during 
the j ear, but none of the bonds of the State were due, and some 
of the holders demanded ten or twelve per cent, premium, and 
others refused to surrender their bonds at any price. 

The constanl and rapid increase of taxation demands consid- 
• ration The following table, showing the taxation for different 



SECOND ELECTION AS GOVERNOR. 



105 



purposes in 1860 and in 1870, and the increase of taxation in ten 
years, sufficiently exhibits the nature and extent of the evil . 



AMOUNT OF TAXES LEVIKD. 



For what purpose. 



!| County tuxes 

i Bridge taxes 

| Poor taxes 

Building taxes 

; Road taxes 

i Railroad taxes 

I Township taxes 

I T : p and sub-district and 
district school taxes... 

I Other special taxes 

I City and town taxes 

i Delinquent taxes 

I 

i Other than State taxes... 

t (State taxes 

Totals 



1860. 



$1,309,137 46 
437.538 40 
260^607 20 
228,441 13 
304,424 77 
538,869 50 
349,360 86 

1,487,247 44 

349,236 33 

1,506,083 86 

453,013 46 



7,313,963 41 
3,503,712 93 



$10,817,676 34 



1870. 



$1,975,088 71 
1,474,148 18 
657,116 42 
733,960 73 
1,199,767 26 
461,848 72 
734,585 65 

4,960,771 87 

1,152,335 09 

5,447,766 96 

667,188 69 



19,464,578 28 
4,666,242 23 



$24,130,820 51 



Increase. 



$665,951 25 

1,036,609 78 

396,509 22 

505,516 60 

805.342 49 

385,224 79 

3,473,524 43 
803,098 76 

3,941,683 10 
214,175 23 



12,227,635 65 
1,162,529 30 



$13,390,164 95 



This table shows that in ten years the State taxes have in- 
creased thirty-three per cent., and that local taxes have increased 
almost one hundred and seventy per cent. ; in other words, that 
less than one-tenth of the increase has been in State taxes, and 
more than nine-tenths in local taxes. 

The increase of local taxation has been far greater than the 
growth of the State in business, population, or wealth. It is 
not to be doubted that this burden has grown to dimensions 
which seriously threaten the prosperity of the State. 

No full and exact statement can be made from the official re- 
ports as to the amount annually collected from the property- 
holders of the State in the form of special assessments for what 
are termed local improvements, but it is certain that this burden 
is also great and rapidly growing. 

The auditor of State reports cases in which such assessments 



10G LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. IIAYES. 



have been made, amounting to half of the cash value of tht 
property on which they were levied, and, in one case which he| 
refers to, the assessment was double the value of the property. I 

In respect to these evils it is undoubtedly easier to find fault! 
than to provide a remedy. No single measure will remove! 
them. Probably no system of measures which the General As-f-i 
sembly can adopt will of themselves accomplish what is desired. 
A complete reform is impossible, unless the city, county, and] 
dt her officers are disposed and thoroughly competent to do the J 
work of cutting off every unnecessary expenditure. 

Much, however, can be accomplished by wise legislation. Lett 
the General Assembly firmly adhere to the policy of the consti- 
tution, and refuse to enact special laws granting powers to tax;J 
or make assessments. Let such powers be exercised only in 
pursuance of general laws. Local authorities should be empow- 
ered to levy no higher rate of taxation than is absolutely re- 
quired for practical efficiency under ordinary circumstances. 
In extraordinary cases general laws should provide for the sub- 
mission of the proposed tax or assessment to the people to be 
affected by it, under such regulations that it can not be levied 
unless at least two-thirds of the tax-payers approve the measure. 

One of the most valuable articles of the present State consti- 
tution is that which prohibits the State, save in a few exceptional 
cases, from creating any debt, and which provides for the pay- 
ment at an early day of the debt already contracted. I am 
convinced that it would be wise to extend the same policy to 
the creation of public debts by county, city, and other local au- 
thorities. The rule " pay as you go" leads to economy in public 
as well as in private affairs; while the power to contract debts 
opens the door to wastefulness, extravagance, and corruption. 

I n the early history of the State, when capital was scarce and 
expensive public works were required for transporting the pro- 
ducts of the State to market, public debts were probably una- 
voidable; but the time, I believe, has come when not only the 
State, but all of its subordinate divisions, ought to be forbidden 
to incur debt. The same rule on this subject ought to be ap- 
plied to local authorities which the constitution applies to the 
State legislature. Experience has proved that the power to con- 
tract debt is as liable to abuse by local boards as it is by the Gen- 
oral Assembly. If it is important to the people that the State 



SECOND ELECTION AS GOVERNOR. 107 

should be free from debt, it is also important that its municipal 
divisions should not have power to oppress them with the burden 
of local indebtedness. 

It would promote an economical administration of the laws 
if all officers, State, county, and municipal, including the mem- 
bers of the legislature, were paid fixed salaries. 

Under existing laws a part of the public officers are paid by 
fees and a part by fixed annual salaries or by a per diem allow- 
ance. The result is great inequality and injustice. Many of 
those who are paid by fees receive a compensation out of all pro- 
portion to the services rendered. Others are paid salaries 
wholly inadequate. For example, many county officers and 
some city officers receive greater compensation than the judges 
of the Supreme Court of the State. The salaries paid to the 
judges ought to be inci"eased ; the amount paid to many other 
public officers ought to be reduced. To do justice, a system of 
fixed salaries, without fees or perquisites, should be adopted. 
The people of Ohio will, without question, sustain an increase 
of the salaries of judges and of other officers who are now inad- 
equately paid ; but it can probably best be done as a part of a 
system which would prevent the payment to public officers of 
enormous sums by means of fees and perquisites. To remove 
all ground of complaint, on account of injustice to present in- 
cumbents, the new system should apply only to those elected 
after its adoption. 

In addition to considerations already presented in favor of a 
revision of the rates of taxation which local officers and boards 
are authorized to levy, another controlling reason is not to be 
omitted. By the recent revaluation of real estate the total basis 
of taxation for the State at large will probably be increased 
almost forty percent., and in many of the cities the increase will 
be nearly one hundred per cent. This renders it imperatively 
necessary to revise the present rates, so as to prevent the collec- 
tion and expenditure of sums much greater than the public good 
demands. 

• Under prudent and efficient management the earnings of the 
penitentiary continue to exceed its expenses, and at the same 
time gratifying progress has been made in improving the condi- 
tion and treatment of the prisoners. The hateful and degrading 
uniform of past years is disappearing; increased means of edu- 



I OS LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

cation. Becular and religious, are afforded, and the officer.'; of the 
institution exhibit an earnest desire to employ every instruj 
mentality authorized by existing laws to restore its inmates to 4 
Bocietj improved in habits, capacity, and character. 

While much has been done in our State during the last twenty 
five years for the improvement of prison discipline, it is not to 
be denied that much more yet remains unaccomplished. 

Assuming that the time has not arrived to attempt a radical 
change of our prison discipline, the following practical sugges- 
tions, consistent with the present system, are offered for youri 
consideration: A convict is now allowed a deduction from the 
period of his sentence as a reward for good behavior. The 
power to extend the period of the sentence as a punishment for 
bad conduct would also, under proper regulations, exercise a i 
wholesome influence in the discipline of the prison. 

The importance of classification among convicts is now uni- 
versally admitted. For economical or other reasons the estab- 
lishment of an intermediate prison will perhaps be deemed 
inexpedient at this time. It is believed, hoAvever, that by em- 
ploying convict labor the additional buildings and improvements 
required lor a satisfactory classification can be erected on the 
ground adjoining the old prison, recently purchased and now 
inclosed, at a small expense compared with the cost of a new 
prison. This plan, it is hoped, will receive your careful consid- 
ei it ion. 

It is also recommended that the Board of State Charities be 
i mpowered to aid discharged convicts to obtain honest employ- 
ment. An annual appropriation of a small sum for this purpose, 
in the course of a few years, would probably save a large num- 
ber, who, without such help, would again return to a criminal 
course of life. 

The most defective part of our present prison system is prob- 
ablj our county jails. It is supposed about 8,000 persons pass 
through our county jails each year. They are generally persons 
charged with crimes and awaiting trial. But lunatics and petty 
offenders in considerable numbers are also confined in these 
places. The young and the old, the innocent and the guilty, 
haul, led offenders and beginners in crime, are commonly min- 
gled together in the jails, under few restraints, without useful 
occupation and with al lant leisure and temptation to learn 



SECOND ELECTION AS GOVERNOR. 100 



wickedness. The jails have heen fitly termed nurseries of 
crime. Plans of jails, not too expensive, have been furnished 
(by the Board of State Charities, which provide for the absolute 
(separation of the prisoners. It is recommended that the law 
shall require all jails to be so constructed as to entirely prevent 
jthis promiscuous and dangerous intercourse. 

Your attention is particularly called to the recommendation 
oi the Board of State Charities that the proper authorities of all 
of the cities of the State should he required to make full re- 
ports annually to the legislature, through the governor, of the 
statistics of vice and crime and of the work of the police de- 
partment in such cities ; and also to the suggestion that prose- 
cuting attorneys should not be allowed to enter a nolle prosequi 
in any case of an indictment for a crime punishable by impris- 
onment in the penitentiary or by death, without the written ap- 
proval of the attorney-general first given upon a written report 
to him of the facts. 

The importance of this is sufficiently shown by the fact that 
in 1869 the number of cases in 'which a nolle prosequi was entered 
exceeded fifteen hundred. 

The Girls' Reformatory at White Sulphur Springs contains 
forty-nine inmates, and it is now demonstrated that the number 
is likely to increase as rapidly as the welfare of the institution 
will allow. Whatever doubts may have been reasonably enter- 
tained as to the necessity for such an institution prior to its es 
tablishment, the report of the directors and superintendent and 
a thorough investigation of the facts will, it is believed, satisfy 
you that the institution is a very important one, and ought to be 
liberally supported. 

The report of the superintendent and trustees of the Soldiers' 
Orphans' Home will engage your earnest attention. The duty 
of providing for the education and support of the children of 
the soldiers of Ohio who fell in the war for the Union was fully 
recognized by the resolutions and acts of your last session. It 
is not doubted that your action was in accordance with the will 
of the people of the State, and they earnestly desire that the 
duty of caring for the soldiers' orphans shall be performed in a 
manner that will worthily express the affection and gratitude 
with which these wards of the State must ever be regarded by 
a just and patriotic community. I therefore respectfully recom- 



110 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

mend that the legislation deemed necessary by the board and 
officers in charge of the institution be enacted as promptly as* 
practicable. 

The report of the geological survey, to be laid before you, ex- 
hibits the encouraging progress of that work. The future growth 
of Ohio in wealth and population will depend largely on the 
de\ elopment of the mining and manufacturing resources of the 
State. Heretofore, our increase in capital and numbers has been 
chiefly due to agriculture. Important as that great interest will 
always be in Ohio, the recent census shows that we may not 
reasonably anticipate, in future, rapid growth in population or 
wealth from agriculture alone. Without calling in question the 
great and immediate benefit to accrue to agriculture from the 
geological survey, it is yet true that the tendency of its exhibition 
of our vast mineral wealth is to encourage the employment of 
labor and capital in mining and manufacturing enterprises. Let 
the work be continued and sustained by ample appropriations. 

It is necessary that the General Assembly, at its present ses- 
sion, should adopt the requisite legislation to carry into effect 
the following requirement of the constitution: Sec. 3, article 16, 
of the constitution, provides that " at the general election to be 
held in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, 
and in each twentieth year thereafter, the question, ' Shall there 
be a convention to revise, alter, or amend the constitution ?' shall 
be submitted to the electors of the State, and in case a majority 
of all the electors voting at such election shall decide in favor 
of such a convention, the General Assembly, at its next session, 
shall provide by law for the election of delegates and the assem- 
bling of such convention." 

in conclusion, 1 feel warranted in congratulating you on the 
favorable judgment of your constituents upon your action on 
the important subjects which were considered at your last ses- 
sion, and in expressing a confident hope that what remains to 
be done will, under Providence, be so wisely ordered that the 
tine interests of all the people of the State will be greatly and 
permanently advanced. 

Without comments of our own, we will simply give 



SECOND ELECTION AS GOVERNOR. Ill 

the opinions of Democratic journals concerning this 
message. 

The Cincinnati Enquirer, of January 4, 1871, said : 

"The message of Governor Hayes is a plain, straightforward, 
and sensible document, and in every respect is creditable to 
him." 

The Columbus Crisis said : 

" The annual message of Governor R. B. Hayes, printed in this 
issue, is a very fair and plain statement of the condition of the 
affairs of the State, and is especially commendable for its brevity 
and practical purport." 

The Steubenville Gazette characterized this message 
as — 

"An excellent and appropriate document — short and compre- 
hensive — and, as it should bo, devoted wholly to State affairs." 

The Cincinnati Commoner, ultra Democratic, de- 
clared : 

" The message is brief, but full of wisdom, and deserves the 
study of every citizen." 

The correspondence of 1871 from the executive 
office reveals letters like these : 

" I long since, in conversation, announced my wish and purpose 
to withdraw from the race for important positions in public 
affairs. I meant this announcement to apply both to the office 
I now hold and the senatorship. That purpose remains un- 
changed." 

A letter of May 5th, to a distinguished New York 
journalist, says : 



112 LTFK OF lUITIIERFORD B. HAYES. 



" Your article on the Ohio governorship is of course satisfac- 
tory to me, but you will not object to two corrections. I have 
nol been and shall not be a candidate for renomination. I 
probably could without effort have been renominated, but usage 
and personal inclination were against it. The more serious er- 
ror is: You omit to name the Republican candidate who is nearly 
certain of the nomination and election. General Edward F. 
Noyes, of < lincinnati, a brave and popular soldier, who lost a leg 
in the Atlanta campaign; an eloquent and attractive speaker, 
and a gentleman of integrity and purity of character, will, I 
think, without question, be nominated. He is the sort of 
man you would support heartily if you lived in Ohio." 

On the 6th of October, 1871, Governor Hayes de- 
livered the striking address we give below, on the oc- 
casion of the inauguration of the celebrated Davidson 
fountain, in Cincinnati. This fountain, in design and 
execution, is a work of art of extraordinary merit. 

Fellow-Citizens : 

It is altogether fitting that the citizens of Cincinnati should 
feel a deep interest in the occasion which has called together 
this large assemblage. It is well to do honor to this noble gift, 
and to do honor to the generous giver. This work lends a new 
charm to the whole city. 

Longfellow's lines in praise of the Catawba that grows on the 
hanks of the Beautiful River gives to the Catawba a finer flavor, 
and renders the Beautiful River still more beautiful. When art 
and genius give to us in marble or on canvas the features of those 
\\c admire or love, ever afterward we discover in their faces and 
in their characters more to admire and more to love. 

This work makes Cincinnati a pleasanter city, her homes more 
happy, her aims worthier, and her future brighter. 

lint this fountain does not pour out its blessings for Cincinnati 
"i for her visitors and guests alone. Cincinnati is one of the 
central eiiies f the Nation — of the great continent. It is be- 
coming the convention city. Witness the National assemblies 
in the interest of commerce, of industry, of education, of be- 






SECOND ELECTION AS GOVERNOR. 113 



nevolence, of progress, of religion, which annually gather here 
from the most distant parts of America. This monument is an 
instructor of all who come. Whoever beholds it will carry away 
some part of the lesson it teaches. The duty which the citizen 
owes to the community in which, and by which, he has pros- 
pered, that duty this work will forever teach. No rich man who 
is wise will, in the presence of this example, willingly go to his 
grave with his debt to the public unpaid and unprovided for. 
Many a last will and testament will have a beneficent codicil, 
suggested by the work we inaugurate to-day. Parks, fountains, 
schools, galleries of art, libraries, hospitals, churches — whatever 
benefits and elevates mankind — will here receive much needed 
encouragement and support. 

This work says to him who, with anxious toil and care, has 
successfully gathered and hoarded — Do not neglect your great op- 
portunity. Divide wisely and equitably between the few who 
are most nearly of your own blood, and the many who in kin- 
ship are only a little farther removed. If you regard only those 
reared under your own roof, your cherished estate will soon be 
scattered, perhaps wasted by profligate heirs in riotous living, to 
their own ruin, and you and your fortune will quickly be for- 
gotten. Give a share — pay a tithe to your more distant and 
more numerous kindred — to the general public, and you will be 
gratefully remembered, and mankind will be blessed by your 
having lived! 

Many, reflecting on the uncertainty of the future, will prefer to 
see their benefactions distributed and applied while they are 
still living. Regarding their obligations to the public as sacred 
debts, they will wish to pay as they go. This is commendable; 
perhaps it is safest. 

But at some time and somehow the example here presented 
will and must be followed. All such deeds are the parents of 
other similar good deeds. And so the circle within which the 
blessings flowing from this fountain are enjoyed will forever grow 
wider and wider, and the people of distant times and places will 
rejoice to drink, as we now do, healthful and copious draughts 
in honor of its founder. 

Here, this matchless structure will link together, in perpetual, 
grateful remembrance, the names of Tyler Davidson and Henry 



114 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

Probascol Ever honored be those names in the city they have 
tttlj honored ! 

The message of Governor Hayes, on retiring from 
office at the close of his fourth year, calls attention 
to the encroachments upon the rights and interests 
of the people by railway corporations, and discusses 
at length the important subject of securing economy, 
efficiency, and purity in the administration of the local 
governments of cities and towns. For its able dis- 
cussion of these and other subjects, this message of 
1872 commends itself. 

Fellow- Citizens of the General Assembly : 

The finances of the State government are in a satisfactory 
condition. The balance in the State treasury on the 15th of No- 
vember, 1870, was §700,038.10; the receipts during the last fiscal 
year were $5,241,184.91; making the total amount of available 
funds in the treasury during the year ending November 15, 1871, 
$6,007,223.01. 

The disbursements during the year have been $5,259,040.74, 
leaving a balance in the treasury, Nov. 15, 1871, of $748,170.27. 

The estimates of the auditor of State of receipts and expendi- 
tures Ibr the current year, are as follows : 

Estimated receipts from all sources, including balances, 
$5,206,366.27. 

Estimated disbursements for all purposes, $4,770,035.73. 

Leaving an estimated balance in the treasury, November 15, 
1872 of s 130,330.54. 

The public funded debt of the State November 15, 1870, after 
deducting theamountinvested in Ohio stocks, was $9,730,144.30. 

During the past year the debt has been reduced $729,415 

Leaving the total debt yet to be provided for, $9,000,729.36. 
< »f this amount, the sum of $44,518.31 has ceased to bear interest, 
the holders thereof having been notified of the readiness of the 
State i,. pay tin' Bame. This leaves the total interest-bearing 
debt of the State, $8,956,211.05. 

The taxes levied in 1870, collectible in 1871, were as follows: 



SECOND ELECTION AS GOVERNOR. 115 



State taxes $4,666,242 2:; 

County and local levies 18,797.389 59 

Delinquencies and forfeitures in former years 007,188 09 

Total taxes, including delinquencies col- 
lectible in 1871.. $24,130,820 51 

The taxes levied in 1871, collectible in 1872, were as follows : 

State taxes $4,350,728 28 

County and local levies 18,604,660 12 

Delinquencies and forfeitures 632,275 84 

Total taxes and delinquencies collectible 

in 1872 $23,587,664 24 

It will be noticed, with gratification, that the annual increase 
of taxation, to which the people have been long accustomed, has 
been checked, and that the taxes, both State and local, have 
been somewhat reduced. 

The increase of local indebtedness still continues. The re- 
turns made to the auditor of State are imperfect, but enough is 
shown to warrant the opinion that during the past year the in- 
debtedness of the towns and cities of the State has increased 
not less than one million of dollar?, and that their aggregate in- 
debtedness now equals the indebtedness of the State. I re- 
spectfully repeat, as the remedy for this evil, the recommenda- 
tion heretofore made, that all public debts be prohibited, except 
in cases of emergency, analogous to those specified in sections 
1 and 2, article 8, of the constitution. 

The report of the adjutant-general shows that there has been 
collected by him from the United States during the year, on ac- 
count of the State war claims, the sum of $145,304.00, making 
the total amount of war claims collected $2,823,247.94. It is 
probable that about $1C0,000 more can be collected on these 
claims without additional legislation by Congress. This will 
leave about $400,C00 of claims unpaid, which, it is believed, when 
presented to Congress, with proper vouchers and explanations, 
will be provided for by special act. As long, however, as the 
board of military claims exists, these claims will continue to in- 
crease, and it would not be advisable to seek Congressional 
action until the State, by closing its accounts with individuals, 
shall be able to ask for a final settlement. 



1 10 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 



It is therefore recommended that the statutes providing for 
the allowance of claims against the State by the commissioners 
of military claims be repealed ; the repeal to take effect at such 
date in the future as will afford opportunity for the presentation 
and allowance of all just claims. 

The report of the commissioner of common schools shows that, 
upon the whole, the educational interests of the State continue 
to be very prosperous. lie presents, however, for your consid- 
eration, a number of changes in the school laws, which he deems 
essential to further progress. The proposed reforms are treated 
of in Ids report under the following heads : normal instruction, 
supervision, a codification of the laws, and the township system. 

The commanding position which Ohio has held in the great 
transactions of our recent civil and military history is largely 
due to the educational advantages enjoyed by her people. 
Every measure which tends to continue and increase those ad- 
vantages merits your earnest and favorable consideration. 

For many years the most eminent teachers and friends of ed- 
ucation have urged the necessity of establishing institutions for 
the instruction of teachers in the principles and duties of their 
high and honorable calling. A few thousand dollars of the 
school fund applied every year to this purpose will, it is believed, 
make the expenditures for school purposes vastly more beneficial 
to the State. 

There are serious objections to the present mixed system of 
school management by means of township boards and subdistrict 
directors. It is believed that this system ought to give place to 
the purely township system, in which all of the schools of the 
township arc under the exclusive control of a board of educa- 
tion chosen by the electors of the township. This plan is in 
conformity with that which has been adopted with satisfactory 
results in most of our towns, and is sustained by the experi- 
ence d' o tlier States in which the purely township system has 
been tried. 

In several counties of the State colored children are practi- 
cally deprived of the privilege of attending public schools. 
The denial of education to any citizen of Ohio is so manifestly 
unjust that it is confidently believed that the legislature needs 
only I., lie informed that such a wrong exists to promptly pro- 
vide a remedy. 



SECOND ELECTION AS GOVERNOR. 117 

The official reports of the penitentiary, the Reform School for 
Boys, the Reform School for Girls, and the benevolent institu- 
tions of the State, which will be laid before you, show that the 
work of these institutions has during the past year been well 
done. They will, without question, receive from you all needed 
encouragement and support. It seems proper, however, to direct 
your attention to the urgent necessity of such legislation as will 
empower the boards of trustees and directors charged with the 
erection of buildings for the insane and for the orphans of de- 
ceased soldiers, to complete them as soon as practicable. 

By the census of 1870 the number of insane persons in the 
State was 3,414. The number of patients under treatment in 
the insane asylums of the State was, last year, only 1,346. The 
trustees of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home report that 
the number of orphans in Ohio needing care is about eight hun- 
dred, and that the number cared for is only about two hundred 
and fifty.- These facts sufficiently demonstrate the importance 
of the suggestion here made. 

I renew the recommendation heretofore made that the legis- 
lature provide for the erection of suitable monuments at the 
graves of General Harrison and General Harner. 

General Harrison has many titles to the grateful remembrance 
of the people of Ohio. He was one of the pioneers of the West, 
a soldier of honorable fame in two wars against the savages and 
in the war of 1812, a secretary and acting governor of the North- 
west Territory before Ohio was organized, a law-maker of con- 
spicuous usefulness at the State capital and at Washington, and 
was chief magistrate of the Nation at the time of his death. 
To honor him is to honor all who were eminent and useful in 
the early settlement of Ohio. 

General Hamer served with distinction four times in the Gen- 
eral Assembly ; was the speaker of the house of representatives ; 
was six years a member of Congress from the Brown county dis- 
trict, and died in Mexico in 1846, a volunteer from Ohio, in the 
service of his country, with the rank of brigadier-general. At the 
time of his death the General Assembly, with entire unanimity, 
" resolved that the body of the deceased be brought from Mexico 
and interred in the soil of Ohio, at the expense of the State.'' 
Having undertaken, as the duty of the State, to give the remains 
of General Hamer a fitting burial, the legislature can not regard 



I 1 S LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

thai duty as completely performed until an appropriate monu- 
menl has been built at his grave. 

Since the adoption of the present constitution the governor's 
duties have compelled him to reside at the capital. If any 
change is made in respect to the powers and duties of the ex- 
ecutive in the revision about to be made of the constitution, the 
change, it is probable, will increase rather than diminish his 
duties. The evident impropriety of subjecting each new incum- 
bent of the office to the inconvenience and expense of procuring 
and furnishing a suitable residence for the short period of a gov- 
ernor's term of office has led, in many States, to the purchase 
of a governor's mansion. Three of the States adjoining Ohio 
have adopted this course. It can not be doubted that Ohio will, 
at no distant day, follow their example. The rapid increase in 
tin- value of real estate in Columbus in consequence of its pres- 
ent growth and its promise of continued prosperity in the future 
gives force to the suggestion that if the State is to purchase a 
governor's residence at all it would be well to do it promptly. 

The importance of wise legislation on the subject of railroads, 
in a State having the geographical position which belongs to 
( ill in, can not be over-estimated. The greater part of the trade 
and travel between the commercial and manufacturing States of 
the East and the agricultural States of the West, and of the 
business of the continental railways which connect the Atlantic 
and Pacific oceans, passes over the railroads of this State. Four- 
teen years ago, Governor Chase, speaking of the railroads of 
< thin, said : " This vast interest, affecting vitally so many other 
interests, has grown suddenly to its present dimensions without 
system, without general organization, and, in some important 
respects, without responsibility." Then the railroads of the State 
carried annually about a million of passengers, and their gross 
receipts were about six millions of dollars a yeai\ Last year 
they carried twelve millions of passengers, and their gross re- 
ceipts exceeded thirty million of dollars. 

All of the just powers of the corporations which conduct this 
immense business are derived from the laws of the State. If 
these laws fail t.> guard adequately the rights and the interests 
of "in- citizens, it is the duty of the General Assembly to supply 
'heir defects. Serious and well-grounded apprehensions are felt 
that in the management of these companies, which are largely 



SECOND ELECTION AS GOVERNOR. 119 

controlled by non-residents of Ohio, practices, not sanctioned by 
the law, nor by sound morality, have become common, which are 
prejudicial to the interests of the great body of the people, and 
which, if continued, will ultimately destroy the prosperity of the 
State. 

^Regarding railroads as the most useful instrumentality by 
which intercourse is carried on between different sections of tho 
country, the people do not desire the adoption of a narrow or 
unfriendly policy toward them. Eut it should be remembered 
that these corporations were created, and their valuable fran- 
chises granted by the legislature to promote the interests of the 
people of the State. No railroad company can sacrifice those 
interests without violating the law of its origin. It is not to be 
doubted that the authority of the General Assembly is compe- 
tent to correct whatever abuses have grown up in the manage- 
ment of the railroads of the State. 

The late commissioner of railroads and telegraphs, in his last 
able and valuable report) directs attention to a large number of 
what he terms " clear and palpable violations of law " by rail- 
road companies, which are of frequent occurrence. 

In relation to the rates prescribed by law for the transporta- 
tion of persons and property, he says : " There is not a railroad 
operated in the State, either under special charter or the general 
law, upon which the law regulating rates is not in someway vio- 
lated nearly every time a regular passenger, or freight, or mixed 
train passes over it." 

As to the laws regulating the occupation of streets and alleys 
by railroad tracks, the speed of locomotives in towns and cities, 
and railroad crossings, he says that statutes which he regards as 
wholesome are, "it is notorious, wholly ignored by some compa- 
nies, and only partially obeyed by others." 

He quotes the laws forbidding railroad officials from being in- 
terested in fast freight, express, or transportation companies, and 
from dealing in railroad securities, and adds, that " the violation 
of these laws is believed to be very common among railroad 
officials." 

The commissioner also gives examples of the " increase or 
watering of stock" by railroad companies, and remarks, "the 
foregoing statements are the more striking in view of the fact 
that the stockholders in the company have been in receipt of 



120 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

regular Bemi-annual dividends for seven years of from six to ten 
per cent, per annum." 

The significance of this remark of the commissioner lies in 
the fact that the rates which railroad companies may charge for 
the transportation of passengers and freight may be prescribed 
by the General Assembly, whenever the net profits amount to 
ten per cent, on the capital actually invested. 

The interests involved are of such magnitude that all legisla- 
tion ought to be based on the fullest and most accurate informa- 
tion which a careful investigation can furnish. I, therefore, rec- 
ommend that a commission of five citizens, of whom the railroad 
commissioner shall be one, be organized, with ample powers to 
investigate the management of the railroad companies of the 
State, their legal rights, and the rights of the State and its citi- 
zen-, and to report the information acquired, with a recommen- 
dation of such measures as the commission shall deem ex- 
pedient. 

During the past year, the traveling public has enjoyed, in Ohio, 
remarkable immunity from railroad accidents. According to the 
reports of the railroad companies to the commissioner, not a 
single passenger has lost his life by the fault of the railroads in 
the State during the year. But the number of persons, " other 
than passengers," and of " employes" who have lost their lives, 
is quite large. One hundred and fifty-seven persons are reported 
to have been killed, and it is without doubt that many deaths 
have occurred which have not been reported. Many of these 
fatal accidents happened in the streets of towns and cities, and 
at street and road crossings. It is perfectly practicable to pro- 
tect citizens from these dangers, by enforcing proper regulations 
as to the speed of trains, and as to the occupancy and crossing 
of streets and roads. Your special attention is called to this 
Bubject. 

One of the most difficult and interesting practical problems 
which now engages the thoughts of the American people is how 
to maintain economy, efficiency, and purity in the administra- 
tion of local affairs, and especially in the government of towns 
and cities, without a departure from principles and methods 
which are deemed essential to free popular government. Many 
of the most important functions of government are in the hands 
of the local authorities. They arc directly charged with the 



SECOND ELECTION AS GOVERNOR. 121 

expenditure of large sums of money, with the protection of life 
and property, and with the administration of civil and criminal 
justice. These duties, in one way or another, touch nearly and 
constantly the interests and feelings of every citizen. Upon 
their faithful performance depends the prosperity, happiness, 
and safety of the community. It is true that as yet Ohio is hap- 
pily, in a great measure, free from the operation of causes which 
in the commercial metropolis of the country recently led to 
such extraordinary corruption in the government of that city. 
But those causes do not belong alone to the great cities of the 
East. They arc already at work in our midst, and they are 
steadily and rapidly increasing in power. No political party is 
altogether free from their influence, and no political party is 
solely responsible for them. We have laws prohibiting almost 
every conceivable official neglect and abuse, and penalties are 
affixed to the violation of those laws which can not be regarded 
as inadequate. The difficulty is to secure their enforcement. 
Those whose duty it is to detect and prosecute are often inter- 
ested in maintaining good relations with the wrong-doers. The 
contractors for public work and supplies not unfrequently have 
a community of interest with those who are the agents of the 
public to let and superintend the performance of contracts. 
Where these abuses exist there is apt to be a large circle of ap- 
parently disinterested citizens, who labor to conceal the facts 
and to suppress investigation. What the public welfare de- 
mands is a practical measure which will provide for a thorough 
and impartial investigation in every case of suspected neglect, 
abuse, or fraud. Such an investigation, to be effective, must be 
made by an authority independent, if possible, of all local in- 
fluences. When abuses are discovered, the prosecution and pun- 
ishment.of offenders ought to follow. But even if prosecutions 
fail in cases of full exposure, public opinion almost always ac- 
complishes the object desired. A thorough investigation of 
official corruption and criminality leads with great certainty to 
the needed reform. Publicity is a great corrector of official 
abuses. Let it therefore be made the duty of the governor, on 
satisfactory information that the public good requires an inves- 
tigation of the affairs of any public office or the conduct of any 
public officer, whether State or local, to appoint one or more cit- 
izens who shall have ample powers to make such investigation. 



1 22 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

[f by the investigation violations of law are discovered, the gov- 
ernor Bhould be authorized, in his discretion, to notify the attor- 
ney general, whose duty it should he, on such notice, to prosecute 
the offenders. The constitution makes it the duty of the gov- 
ernor to " see that the laws are faithfully executed." Some such 
measure as the one here recommended is necessary to give force 
ami effect to this constitutional provision. 

In compliance with the constitution, the last General Assem- 
bly submitted to the people the question of holding a convention 
" to revise, alter, or amend" the constitution, and at the October 
election a large majority of the voters of the State decided in 
favor of a convention. It is the duty of the General Assembly, 
at its present session, to j:>rovide by law for the election of dele- 
gates and the assembling of the convention. 

The vote on the question of calling the convention which 
formed the present constitution was taken at the October elec- 
tion, 1849. At the next session of the General Assembly an act 
was passed which provided for the election of delegates to the 
convention the first Monday of April, 1850, and the convention 
was convened on the first Monday of May following. 

In conclusion, I wish to make my grateful acknowledgments 
to the people of Ohio for the honorable trusts they have con- 
fided to me, and to express the hope that the harmony, prosper- 
ity, and happiness which they now enjoy in such full measure 
may, under Providence, be perpetual. 

Hay os, during his two terms as Governor, proposed 
and carried through the following measures of the 
first importance to the welfare of the State : 

He recommended and had completed a comprehen- 
sive Geological Survey of Ohio. 

He secured the establishment of a Soldiers' Or- 
phans' Home. 

He had the powers of the Board of State Charities 
restored and enlarged. 

Ee had provision made for the care, by the State, 
of the chronic insane. 



SECONu" ELECTION AS GOVERNOR. 123 

Under his direction the graded system was adopted 
in the State Prison and prison reforms introduced. 

Minority representation on Election Boards was 
secured. 

The Agricultural and Mechanical College was 
founded, trustees appointed, and the institution or- 
ganized. 

Portraits of the Governors of Ohio were placed in 
the State collection. 

The suffrage amendment to the Constitution of the 
State was adopted. 

The fifteenth amendment to the Constitution of the 
United States was ratified. 

The Lincoln Memorial, an admirable work of art, 
was placed in the capitol. 

The right of soldiers in the National Asylum to 
vote was restored. 

The students' privilege of voting while attending 
college was given back. 

The odious " visible admixture " law was repealed. 

The St. Clair papers were purchased, and letters 
and manuscripts relating to pioneer history collected. 

A Reform School for Girls was established and made 
successful. 

The State debt was reduced, and all increase of 
debt opposed. 

Can any Governor of any State say that he has 
done a better business ? 



124 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THIRD TIME ELECTED GOVERNOR. 

The Senatorskip declined — Army Banquet Speech — Third 
Time nominated for Congress — Glendale Speech— De- 
clines a Federal Office — Making a Home — Nomination 
for Go rem or — Platform — Serenade Speech — Demo- 
cratic Convention and Platform — Marion Speech of 
Hayes — Woodford — Grosvenor — Schurz — Inflation 
Drivel — Interest in the Contest — Honest Money Tri- 
ll mpha n t — Third Inaug ural. 

Just as Governor Hayes was vacating the office of 
chief executive of Ohio, to which he had positively 
refused to be re-elected, he was offered and declined 
the Senatorship from that State. The proofs of this 
fact arc before us. The circumstances were these: 
A Senator in Congress was to be elected by the State 
Legislature, in January, 1872, to succeed John Sher- 
man. Mr. Sherman had secured the nomination and 
election of a majority of Republicans who were favor- 
able to his own re-election ; but the Republican major- 
ity on joint ballot was small. Before the meeting of 
the Republican caucus, a sufficient number of mem- 
bers to control the result, with the aid of the Demo- 
oats, proposed to Governor Hayes to stay out of the 
caucus, and, uniting the entire opposition to Sherman, 
secure his defeat. 

Hayes had authoritative assurances that the Demo- 
cratic members would support him, with a view of 
defeating Sherman; while the Independent or anti- 



THIRD TIME ELECTED GOVERNOR. 125 

Sherman Republicans, who held the balance of power, 
were importunate that he should allow himself to be 
their compromise candidate. But he firmly rejected 
all these overtures, and forbid the use of his name in 
connection with the matter in any manner whatever. 
A leading State Senator declared it " was most extra- 
ordinary to see the Senatorship refused, with the 
Presidency in prospect." 

On the 7th of April, General Hayes delivered a 
speech in Cincinnati in response to the toast "Our 
Country," which contains thoughts worthy of repro- 
duction. It was upon the occasion of the fifth annual 
banquet of the Army of the Tennessee. After some 
general introductory remarks, the orator said : 

" Consider the history of our country. It is the youngest of the 
nations. We are just beginning to look forward to the celebra- 
tion, five years hence, of the completion of the first century of 
its existence. This brief period, so crowded with interesting 
events, with great achievements in peace and war, and adorned 
with illustrious names in every honorable walk of life, has wit- 
nessed a progress in our country without a parallel in the annals 
of the race. 

"Add to these considerations the visions of greatness and 
prosperity which the future opens to America, and we shall be- 
gin to see by what titles our country claims from all of her chil- 
dren admiration, gratitude, and loyal love. 

"Those who are accustomed to take gloomy views of every event 
and every prospect, will perhaps remind us that all the parts of 
this picture have their dark side ; that this extended and mag- 
nificent territory of ours must needs have rival interests hostile 
and dangerous to unity ; that people differing in race, nation- 
ality, i-eligion, language, and traditions will, with difficulty, be 
fused into one harmonious Nation; that written constitutions do 
not make a government unless their provisions are obeyed or en- 
forced. As to our boasted history, they will point to pages dark- 
ened with grave crimes against the weaker races ; and as to our 



120 LIFE OP RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

future, they will tell us of the colossal fortunes which, under the 
Banctiou of law, are already consolidating in the hands of a few 
111,11 not always the best men — powers which threaten alike 
good government and our liberties. 

" In reply to these views, it can not be denied that in a wide 
domain like ours, inhabited by people not always harmonious, 
something more than written constitutions ai*e required. A 
mere paper government is not enough. The law, if not volun- 
tarily obeyed, must be firmly enforced. To accomplish this 
there must be wisdom, moderation, firmness, not only in those 
who administer the government, but in the people, who, at last, 
are the government. 

'The great task is to educate a whole people in these high 
virtues, to the end that they may be equal to their opportunities 
and to the dangers that surround them. The chief instrumen- 
talities in this education are the home, the school, the platform, 
the pulpit, and the press, and all good men and women are the 
educators. 

" Doubt and difficulty and danger lend to every human enter- 
prise it- chief interest and charm. Every man who fought In 
the Army of the Tennessee at Shiloh knows that the gloom and 
despondency in which the first day's battle closed,- gave an added 
glory to the victory of the second day; that the victory is al- 
ways most highly prized which, after a long and desperate strug- 
gle, i- snatched at last from the very jaws of disaster and defeat. 

" If. in the future of our country, trials and conflicts and ca- 
lamities await her, it is but the common allotment of Provi- 
dence to men. The brave and the good will (here always) find 
Doble work and a, worthy career, and will rejoice that they are 
permitted to live and to act in such a country as the American 
republic." 

In July, 1872, Ex-Governor Hayes received a peti- 
tion, signed by the most influential men in the second 
Congressional district in Cincinnati, asking him to 
accepl a nomination for Congress. Scores of letters 
and telegrams were sent to him at Fremont, where he 
was detained by illness in his family, urging upon him 



THIRD TIME ELECTED GOVERNOR. 127 

the duty of sacrificing personal to public interests and 
consent to become a candidate. He refused abso- 
lutely. The nominating convention met August Gth, 
and the following telegram tells the story : 

" In spite of your protests, you were nominated on first ballot. 

Great enthusiasm, and whole party lifted up. We assured Re- 

publieans that Governor Hayes never retreated when ordered 

to advance. Things are looking bright. 

" Richard Smith." 

Two days after, a petition was forwarded, signed 
by two hundred influential Republican and non-parti- 
san voters of the second district, containing the words, 
we " most urgently solicit you to accept the nomina- 
tion given you." 

His acceptance being demanded on the ground of 
duty, he returned to Cincinnati and made the canvass. 
At Glendale, on September 4, he delivered a lengthy 
speech, from which we take these extracts : 

FcUow-citizcns : 

My purpose in addressing you this evening is to spread before 
the people of the second district my views on the questions of 
National policy which now engage the public attention. 

In the. present condition of the country, two things are of vital 
importance — peace and a sound financial policy. We want 
peace — honorable peace — with all nations ; peace with the In- 
dians, and peace between all of the citizens of all of the States. 
We want a financial policy so honest that there can be no stain 
on the National honor and no taint on the National credit ; so 
stable that labor and capital and legitimate business of every 
sort can confidently count upon what it will be the next week, 
the next month, and the next year. We want the burdens of 
taxation so justly distributed that they will bear equally upon 
all classes of citizens in proportion to their ability to sustain 
them. 



128 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

\\\- want our currency gradually to appreciate, until, without 
financial shock or any sudden shrinkage of values, but in the 
natural course of trade, it shall reach the uniform and permanent 
value of gold. With lasting peace assured, and a sound finan- 
cial condition established, the United States and all of her citi- 
zens may reasonably expect to enjoy a measure of prosperity 
without a parallel in the world's history. 

"When the debates of the last presidential election were in 
progress, four years ago, there were troubles with other nations 
threatening the public peace, and, in particular, there was a most 
difficult, irritating, and dangerous controversy with Great Brit- 
ain, which it seemed almost impossible peaceably to settle. Now 
we are at peace with all nations; the American government is 
everywhere abroad held in the highest honor; and an example 
of submitting National disputes to the decision of a court of ar- 
bitration has been set, which is of incalculable value to the 
world. 

Four years ago, and for a considerable period since, the public 
peace has been broken or threatened in a majority of the late 
slave States, by bands of lawless men, oath bound, disguised, and 
armed, who, by terror, by scourging, and by assassination, under- 
took to deprive unoffending citizens, both white and colored, of 
their most cherished rights, for no reason except a difference of 
political sentiment. Now these organizations have, it is claimed 
by their political associates, disbanded. Large numbers of citi- 
zens in those States, heretofore hostile to the recent amendments 
to the constitution, and to the equal rights of colored people, 
declare themselves satisfied with those amendments, and ready 
to maintain the constitutional rights of colored citizens. Not- 
withstanding the predictions of our adversaries, that to confer 
political rights upon colored people would lead to a war of races, 
white people and colored people are now voting side by side in 
all of the old -lave States, and their elections are quite as free 
from violence and disorder as they were when whites alone were 
the \ot.rs. In a word, peace prevails in the South to an extent 
which, under the circumstances, the ablest statesmen among our 
adversaries three yens ago pronounced impossible. The watch- 
word of the Republican parly four years ago was "Let us have 
peace." A survey of every field where the public peace was then 



THIRD TIME ELECTED GOVERNOR. 129 



imperiled, of our affairs with foreign nations, with the Indians, 
and in the South, shows that the pledge implied in that famous 
watchword has been substantially made good, and that, if the 
people continue to stand by the government, the peace we now 
enjoy will be continued and enduring. 

CIVIL SERVICE REFORM. 

There are several questions relating to the present and the 
future which merit the attention of the people. Among the 
most interesting of these is the question of civil service reform. 

About forty years ago a system of making appointments to 
office grew up, based on the maxim, " to the victors belong the 
spoils." The old rule— the true rule — that honesty, capacity, 
and fidelity constitute the highest claim to office, gave place to 
the idea that partisan services were to be chiefly considered. 
All parties in practice have adopted this system. Since its first 
introduction it has been materially modified. At first, the 
president, either directly or through the heads of depart- 
ments, made all appointments. Gradually, by usage, the ap- 
pointing power in many cases was transferred to members of 
Congress— to senators and representatives. The offices in these 
cases have become not so much rewards for party services as re- 
wards for personal services in nominating and electing senators 
and representatives. What patronage the president and his cab- 
inet retain, and what offices congressmen are by usage entitled 
to fill is not definitely settled. A congressman who maintains 
good relations with the executive usually receives a larger share 
of patronage than one who is independent. The system is a 
bad one. It destroys the independence of the separate depart- 
ments of the government, and it degrades the civil service. It 
ought to be abolished. General Grant has again and again ex- 
plicitly recommended reform. A majority of Congress has been 
unable to agree upon any important measure. Doubtless the 
bills which have been introduced contain objectionable features. 
But the work should be begun. Let the best obtainable bill be 
passed, and experience will show what amendments are required. 
I would support either Senator Trumbull's bill or Mr. Jenckes' 
bill, if nothing better were proposed. The admirable speeches 
on this subject by the representative of the first district, the Hon. 



130 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B, HAYES. 

Aaron F. Perry, contain the best exposition I have seen of sound 
doctrine on this question, and I trust the day is not distant when 
the principles which he advocates will be embodied in practical 
measures of legislation. We ought to have a reform of the sys- 
tem of appointments to the civil service, thorough, radical, and 
complete. 

The people of the United States will be agreeably- 
surprised to learn that, four years ago, not only the 
sentiments, but almost the identical language of the 
recent letter of acceptance upon the subject of this 
great reform was publicly proclaimed by the Repub- 
lican candidate for the presidency. 

In 1872, when the Presidency was not in his thoughts, 
he advocated with great force the doctrines which Inde- 
pendent Republicans especially commend him for 
maintaining to-day. These opinions it would then be 
foolishly needless to say are honest; they are deep- 
rooted convictions of long growth. 

The elections went heavily against the Republicans 
in Hamilton county, in 1872. Mr. Eggleston, the 
sitting member of Congress from the First District, 
was beaten three thousand five hundred and sixty-nine 
votes; and General Hayes was defeated by General 
II. B. Banning, whose majority was one thousand 
five hundred and two. Compared with the result in 
the First District, Hayes ran a thousand votes ahead 
of his ticket. He had performed his duty and was 
satisfied. 

A few months later he was offered, by the Presi- 
dent, the office of Assistant Treasurer of the United 
States, at Cincinnati, which appointment he respect- 
fully declined. 

The years L873 and 1874 were employed by General 



THIRD TIME ELECTED GOVERNOR. 131 



Hayes in making and adorning a future home for 
himself and his family, near Fremont. He planted 
lover a thousand trees, and filled his grounds with 
) vines, shrubs, and flowers. 

In January, 1874, his patron uncle and life-long 
'friend Sardis Birchard died, leaving his favorite 
; nephew heir to a considerable estate. It elevates 
I our estimate of human nature to find that this heir- 
j apparent, or rather heir inevitable to a handsome 
I fortune, diminished the amount he would naturally 
' inherit by persuading his uncle to make bequests, 
* amounting to seventy-live thousand dollars, to the 
citizens of Fremont for a Public Park and a Free 
1 Public Library. It is not necessary to add, that this 
| unselfish course of action makes known character, 
nor to say what kind of a character it makes known. 
The Republican State Convention, which assem- 
bled at Columbus, June 2, 1875, nominated General 
Hayes a third time for the office of Governor. He 
received the news of the nomination while playing 
base ball with his children at their home in Fremont. 
The circumstances of this nomination were extra- 
ordinary, and the honor it implied exceptional. The 
facts, in brief, were these : The Hon. William Allen 
having been put in nomination by the Democrats, 
for the office of Governor, in 1873, mainly through 
the influence of his nephew, Senator Thurman, was 
elected by a small majority in October of that year. 
Mr. Allen, as Governor, made himself active in the 
direction of economy and the reduction of taxation, 
and seemed to increase his popularity because of the 
high reputation he enjoyed for personal integrity. 
Early in 1875 it became apparent that he would 



132 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 



secure, without opposition, a renomination. It be- 1» 
came equally apparent, also, that the Republicans n 
would encounter no slight difficulty in defeating him. 
He was in possession, he had the prestige of victory 
and was immensely popular with his party. It was 
the plainest dictate of policy and duty for the Repub 
licans to proceed with extremest caution and put in 
nomination their very strongest man. Personal am- 
bitions and interests must be put aside in every great 
emergency, when the success of a cause is at stake. 
"What every great emergency needs is a man. The 
eyes of the Republicans of Ohio were at the same 
period of time turned toward Hayes as that leader — 
that man. He was written to, from every portion of 
the State, to consent to become again a candidate. 
His uniform reply was, that he had retired finally and 
absolutely from public life, and that his tastes and 
interests would keep him at home. Some, receiving 
these responses in the spirit in which they were given, 
looked around for other candidates. In Cincinnati 
there was a strong local influence favoring Judge 
Taft, the able and most estimable gentleman who 
is now Attorney-General of the United States. Gov- 
ernor Hayes repeatedly announced that he would, 
under no circumstances, be a candidate against his 
friend, Judge Taft, and urged the delegates from his 
county to support Taft, which they did. Notwith- 
standing these facts, when the Convention met, the 
delegates, according to the public statement of Gen- 
eral Grosvenor, were four to one in favor of Hayes' 
nomination. On the first ballot, two hundred and 
seventy-four being necessary to a choice, Hayes 
received four votes less than four hundred, and Taft 



THIRD TIME ELECTED GOVERNOR. 133 



one hundred fifty-one. The nomination was made 
unanimous on motion of Judge Taft's son. 

Finding himself once more an involuntary candidate 
for office, Governor Hayes lost no time in getting 
ready for the supreme struggle;, thus far, of his life. 
I Visiting, three weeks later, the home of his relative, 
General Mitchell, in Columbus, he was serenaded by 
the Hayes Club of the capital city, and, in response to 
their calls, foreshadowed the great issues of the ap- 
proaching campaign. Without circumlocution, he 
said : 

"If it shall turn out that the party in power are opposed to a 
sound, safe, stable currency, I have no doubt that in October the 
people will make a change. If it shall turn out that the party 
in power were guilty of gross corruption in the legislative de- 
partment, and that when that corruption was exposed the ma- 
jority shielded those who were implicated, I have no doubt the 
people will make a change. If it shall turn out that the party 
in power yielded to the dictation of an ecclesiastical sect, and 
through fear of a threatened loss of votes and power has suffered 
itself to be domineered over in its exercise of the law-making 
power, there ought to be, as I doubt not there will be, a great 
change. If it shall turn out that the party in power is danger- 
ously allied to any body of men who are opposed to our free 
schools, and have proclaimed undying hostility to our educa- 
tional system, then I doubt not the people will make a change in 
the administration." 

The convention which nominated Hayes had adopted 
some sensible resolutions. It declared, first, that 

" The United States are one as a Nation, and all citizens aro 
equal under the laws, and entitled to their fullest protection. 

" Third. We are in favor of a tariff for revenue with inci- 
dental protection to American industry. 

"Fourth. We stand by free education, our public school system, 



134 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

the taxation of all for Its support, and no division of the school 
fund. 

"Eleventh. The observance of Washington's example in retir- 
ing at the close of a second presidential term will be in the 
future, as it has been in the past, regarded as a fundamental rule 
in the unwritten law of the Republic." 

The Democratic State Convention met on the 17th 
of June, and was presided over by Judge Rufus P. 
lianncy. It renominated Governor Allen by accla- 
mation and a rising vote amidst great cheering. 

The governor delivered an intemperate speech upon 
the occasion, in which his denunciation was about 
equally divided between the old alien and sedition 
laws and Grant's administration. Samuel F. Cary, 
nominated for lieutenant-governor, made a loud 
speech. Pendleton, Ewing, Thurman, Allen, and 
Cary spoke at the ratification meeting in the evening. 

The platform contained the sound proposition that 
the president's services should be limited to one term, 
thereby endorsing a material part of Governor Hayes' 
letter of acceptance in advance. It also contained 
what some have called the rascally, others the asinine 
propositions that the volume of currency should be 
made and kept equal to the wants of trade; that all 
National Bank circulation should be promptly and 
permanently retired, andlegal tenders be issued in their 
Btead, and that the payment of at least one-half of the 
customs should be in legal tenders. 

Senator Thurman, much to the surprise of his east- 
ern friends, acquiesced in, or at least failed to de- 
nounce this inflation platform. lie forgot the pro- 
verb thai it is the bold man who wins. Had he made 
a ringing, thirty-minutes, hard-money speech on the 



THIRD TIME ELECTED GOVERNOR. 135 

occasion, no power on the continent could probably 
have kept him out of the White House. This was the 
day of his destiny, but the day of his destiny is over. 
The public and non-partisan estimate of this Demo- 
cratic platform is fairly reflected in the editorial ut- 
terances of the Cincinnati Commercial of June 18th, 
to the effect that : 

" This platform is a declaration of war upon the National 
credit. The 'programme of repudiation is made particularly 
clear. . . . The contest in Ohio this summer in an extraor- 
dinary degree concerns the Nation." 

The Chicago Times said : 

"If Allen be elected, the immediate effect is very sure to be 
a prodigious l'ise in the threatening and dangerous tidal wave of 
inflation and repudiation. The political tradition which goes 
by the name of the Democratic party, will be forthwith pervaded 
in every part by an active and aggressive repudiation senti- 
ment." 

The inflation Democracy were not only hopeful but 
boastful. Governor Allen made and repeated the 
prediction that he would be re-elected by from 60,000 
to 70,000 majority. He said that he would not com- 
promise with Hayes on 20,000. It was represented 
that the hard times were caused by the Republicans, 
and that the people wanted "more money," which 
interpreted meant more debts or due bills. Much was 
said on the stump about what " the people think," 
forgetting that the material question is not what they 
think, but what they ought to think. 

Governor Hayes was not unmindful of the national 
and international importance of the contest. Know- 
ing that the Democrats had carried the State the year 



13G LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

before by a majority of 17,000 on their State ticket 
and 24,000 on their Congressional ticket, he did not 
underrate the difficulties to be contended with in the 
struggle. Several Republican members of Congress 
had taken the inflation shute, and were continually 
writing him not to be too decided ; that a little more 
currency would be a good thing. But he buckled on 
his hard-money armor, and going into the contest 
early, delivered at Marion, Lawrence county, the 
sound and solid speech which closes this volume. 
Thus, in the midst of the miners and furnace men 
who were suffering most from hard times and clamor- 
ing most loudly for more money, Hayes boldly pro- 
claimed his sound currency creed, and opposed infia- 
tion to the extent of a dollar. 

Strong men came from other States to aid him in 
this battle against odds. The strongest in this kind 
of battle were Stewart L. Woodford, of New York, 
and Schurz and Grosvenor, of Missouri. General 
Woodford, in the dozen debates he conducted with 
General Ewing, the ablest of the inflationists, devel- 
oped debuting abilities of the first order, and exhibi- 
ted a complete mastery of the science of finance. 

Colonel Wm. M. Grosvenor showed the same pow- 
ers on the stump he had shown as a writer, and pre- 
sented arguments which will probably remain unan- 
swered for some centuries to come. 

Carl Schurz appeared late in the field, upon the call 
of two hundred merchants of Cincinnati, who assured 
him that the cause of "National honor and common 
honesty" was involved, and delivered a half dozen 
superb speeches. Senator Morton, Senator Oglesby, 



THIRD TIME ELECTED GOVERNOR. 137 

Senator Windom, and Senators Sherman, Dawes, and 
Boutwell took part in the canvass. 

Attorney-General Taft, Ex-Governor Noyes, Gar- 
field, Monroe, Foster, Danford, and Lawrence strength- 
ened the State forces. 

"We can not waste time upon the dreary drivel on 
the inflation side of this campaign. Men who have 
not learned the elementary principles of the science 
of political economy, who have not mastered the defi- 
nitions, as we say, in geometiw, conld say nothing in- 
telligible to the finite understanding. The speeches 
were as " incoherent " as the New York World proved 
the platform to be. They all contained doctrines, how- 
ever, in perpendicular antagonism to the financial 
doctrines of the St. Louis convention. When the in- 
flationists learn what money is — what its office, its 
function is — they may be able to resume the discus- 
sion of finance with their opponents in the Demo- 
cratic party. 

After a campaign which called forth almost daily 
leaders from the press of New York and London, and 
aroused the interest of Europe, General Hayes was a 
third time elected governor of Ohio by a majority of 
5,544. 

The character of the contest lifted him from a State 
leader to a national, an international man, and made the 
presidency a possibility. We now leave the reader to 
engage in the profitable pleasure of reading the only 
Ohio governor's third inaugural : 

Fellow-citizens of the General Assembly : 

Questions of National concern, in the existing condition of 
public affairs, may well be left to those officers to whom the peo- 
ple, in conformity with the constitution of the United States, 



138 LIFE OP RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

have confided the important duties and responsibilities of the 
various departments of the general government. 

During the term for which you have been elected, the consti- 
tution of the State devolves on you the task of dealing with 
many Bubjects very interesting to the people of Ohio. The duty 
of communicating to you the condition of the State, and of rec- 
ommending measures deemed expedient, was performed at the 
opening of your present session by the distinguished citizen who 
lias preceded me in the executive office. In complying with the 
usage which requires me to appear before you on this occasion, 
I am, therefore, relieved from the necessity of entering upon 
any extensive examination of the subjects which will claim your 
attention. There are, however, a few topics on which brief sug- 
gestions may, perhaps, be profitably submitted. 

The attention of the legislature has often been earnestly in- 
voked to the rapid increase of municipal and other local ex- 
penditures, and the consequent augmentation of local taxation 
and local indebtedness. This increase is found mainly in the cities 
and large towns. It is certainly a great evil. How to govern 
cities well, consistently with the principles and methods of pop- 
ular government, is one of the most important and difficult 
problems of our time. Profligate expenditure is the fruitful 
cause of municipal misgovernment. If a means can be found 
which will keep municipal expenses from largely exceeding the 
public necessities, its adoption will go far toward securing hon- 
esty and efficiency in city affairs. In cities large debts and bad 
government go together. Cities which have the lightest taxes 
and smallest debts are apt, also, to have the purest and most sat- 
i- factory governments. 

The following statement, showing the increase of municipal 
taxation and indebtedness in the cities and large towns of Ohio, 
Ought to arrest attention : 

In 1871, in thirty-one of the principal cities and towns of the 
State, the average rate of taxation was twenty-three and one- 
tent], mills on the dollar. The total amount of taxes levied for 
all purposes was $8,988,064. The total indebtedness was $7,187,- 
082. 

In L875, ii: the same cities and towns, the average rate of tax- 
ation was twenty-eight and three-tenths mills on the dollar. The 



TIIISE TIME ELECTED GOVERNOR. 139 

total amount of taxes levied for all purposes was $12,361,934. 
The total indebtedness was $20,800,4'.) 1. 

The salient points in this statement are, that in four years the 
rate of municipal taxation has increased almost 25 per cent. ; the 
total amount of muncipal taxes has increased over thirty-seen per 
cent.,' and municipal indebtedness has increased about one hun- 
dred and ninety per cent., or more than thirteen and a half mill- 
ions of dollars. If this great increase of burdens affected di- 
rectly the whole people of the State, they would give their agents 
in the legislative and executive departments of the State gov- 
ernment no peace until effective measures to prevent its contin- 
uance were adopted. But, in fact, the whole people of the Stato 
are deeply interested in this subject. The burdens borne by the 
cities and towns must be shared, in part at least, by all who transact 
business with them. The town and the neighboring country 
have a common interest, and, in many respects must be regarded 
as one community. 

It has been said that the discretion committed to the local au- 
thorities, however limited and guarded, must be necessarily 
large ; that in respect to the imposition of the largest proj^ortion 
of the burden imposed upon the citizen, they constitute the real 
legislature ; and that for the prevention of the evils we are con- 
sidering, the people must exercise the greatest care in the choice 
of citizens to fill the important local offices. Experience does 
not seem to justify the expectation that an adequate remedy can 
be obtained in this way. 

I submit that to the subject of local indebtedness the General 
Assembly should apply the principles of the State constitution 
on the subject of State indebtedness. 

It is not enough to require in every grant of special authority 
to incur debt as a condition precedent that the people interested 
shall approve it by their votes. It is well known how easily sucli 
elections are carried under the influence of local excitement and 
local rivalries. If the rule of the State constitution which for- 
bids all debts except in certain specified emergencies is deemed 
too stringent to be applied to local affairs, the legislature should 
at least accompany every authority to contract debt with an im- 
perative requirement that a tax sufficient to pay off the indebt- 
edness within a brief period shall be immediately levied, and 
thus compel every citizen who votes to increase debts to vote at 



140 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 



the -an)'' time for an immediate increase of taxes sufficient to 
discharge them. 

The wisdom of the policy long since adopted of placing a ju- 
dicious limitation on the power of municipal authorities to levy 
taxes lias been vindicated by experience. It must, however, ul- 
timately fail to accomplish its object if the increase of municipal 
indebtedness is allowed to go on. To authorize a town to con- 
tract a debt, whose expenditures already require taxation up to 
the limit allowed by law, is, in its necessary effect, tantamount 
to a repeal of the limitation. 

Under the provisions of the eighth article of the constitution, 
already referred to, the State debt, notwithstanding the extraor- 
dinary expenditures of the war, has been reduced from over 
twenty millions, the amount due in 1851, until it is now only 
about seven millions. An important part of the constitutional 
provisions which have been so successful in State finances is the 
section which requires the creation of a sinking fund and the 
annual payment of a constantly increasing sum on the principal 
of the State debt. Let a requirement analogous to this be en- 
acted in regard to existing local indebtedness; let a judicious 
limitation of the rate of taxation which local authorities may 
levy be strictly adhered to, and allow no further indebtedness 
to be authorized except in conformity with these principles; 
and we may, I believe, confidently expect that within a few 
\ ears the burdens of debt now resting upon the cities and towns 
of the State will disappear, and that other wholesome and much 
needed reforms in the whole administration of our municipal 
government will of necessity follow the adoption of what may 
be called the cash system in local affairs. 

Among the most interesting duties you will have to perform 
are those which relate to the guardianship and care of the un- 
fortunate classes of society and to the punishment and reforma- 
tion ,,f criminals. According to the latest official reports, the 
State i< responsible for the support and care of about fifteen 
thousand of her dependent citizens. The State is also bound 
that many thousands more, who are imprisoned for longer 
or Bhorter periods on account of crime, have just and wise treat- 
ment. There is annually expended in the performance of these 
duties a tun exceeding two and a half millions of dollars. The 






THIRD TIME ELECTED GOVEREOR. 141 

people of Ohio feel a profound interest in what are known as 
the benevolent, reformatory, and penal institutions of the State. 

In order that the General Assembly might from time to time 
receive full and accurate information as to the efficiency of the 
management of these institutions, and of the county and city 
jails, infirmaries, and work-houses, it was enacted in 1867 that a 
Board of State Charities be established. It was intended that 
this board should be composed of citizens of intelligence and 
benevolence, who would serve without compensation. They 
were "to investigate the system of the public charitable and 
correctional institutions of the State, and to make such recom- 
mendations as they might deem necessary." They were also 
required to make annually a full and complete report of their 
doings to the legislature. In pursuance of this law a board was 
organized, which, at a trifling expense to the State, did much 
valuable work. By reason of their investigations and reports, 
important improvements were introduced into the infirmaries 
and jails of the State, and the general efficiency of our penal 
and reformatory system was increased. In 1872 the General 
Assembly, without due consideration, it is believed, repealed the 
act creating the board. 1 respectfully recommend that the 
Board of State Charities be re-established. 

It is believed that an investigation in the interest of economy 
will discover that several offices, somewhat expensive to the 
State, may, without detriment to the public service, be either 
abolished, or so consolidated as to accomplish a material saving 
to the treasury. 

Agreeing generally with the sentiments of Governor Allen's 
recent message, I desire especially to concur in what is said on 
the subject of the National Centennial Celebration. 

No community in the world has been permitted by Providence 
to enjoy more largely the blessings conferred on mankind by 
the great event of 1776 than the people of Ohio. Ohio and her 
interests had no existence one hundred years ago. They are the 
growth of less than a century. The people naturally wish that 
their State, and her history, and her advantages should be widely 
known. No other such opportunity for their exhibition will 
probably occur for several generations. 

Let your session be short — avoid all schemes requiring exces- 
sive expenditure, whether State or local, and your constituents 



142 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. IIAYES. 

will cheerfully approve the appropriation required to secure to 
i 1 1 1 i. > a fitting representation in the approaching celebration of 
the Nation's birth. 

Before taking the oath of office, I desire to make my acknowl- 
edgments to my predecessor, Governor Allen, for the friendly 
and considerate way in which he has treated me, both during 
and since the recent political contest in Ohio; and to express 
the wish, in which I am sure you and all the people whom he 
lias served will unite with me, that, returning to his beautiful 
home overlooking the ancient capital of our State, he may enjoy 
for many years to come the best blessings which belong to this 
stage of existence. 



NOMINATION TO THE PRESIDENCY. 143 



CHAPTER X. 

NOMINATION TO THE PRESIDENCY. 

Early Suggestions — Letters on Subject — Garfield Letter 
— Action of State Convention — Cincinnati Convention 
— Course of his Friends — First and Second Day's 
Events — Speech of Noyes — Balloting — Nominated on 
Seventh Ballot — Officially Notified — Habits — Personal 
Appearance — Family — Letter of Acceptance — Charac- 
ter as a Soldier, Magistrate, and Man — Domestic Sur- 
roundings. 

No able man cau for a long time fill the ofiice of 
chief magistrate of one of the three great States of 
the Union without having his name more or less men- 
tioned by his friends in connection with the presi- 
dency. As early as October, 1871, the president of 
the Chamber of Commerce of Cincinnati, at a large 
public meeting held in that city just prior to the fall 
election, introduced Governor Hayes as the next Re- 
publican candidate for President of the United States. 

In 1872 a modest poet was inspired by the surround- 
ing sentiment to sing : 

" We bow not down to yonder rising sun, 

As did the Parsee worshiper of old, 
But bend in homage when its race is run, 

And watch it sink in puip>le-fretted gold. 
And thus to thee, oh Hayes ! the tried, the true, 

On battle-field and in the civic chair, 
Our heart's deep gratitude, thy meed and due, 

(As closes far too soon thy proud career), 
Goes out with benedictions pure and high : 



144 LIFE OF IIUTIIERFORD B. HAYES. 

Oh may thy set be brief, and, like the sun, 
Bise thou again — thy light to fill the sky, 

A brighter course of glory still to run, 
Till millions now unborn shall hail thy name 
In ages yet to come, with grand acclaim !" 

Early in 1875 he was overwhelmed with letters 
urging upon him the acceptance of the third nomina- 
tion for governor. Many of these letters presented 
as an inducement in favor of acceptance that if he 
ran for governor and succeeded in beating Allen, the 
prize of the presidency would be within his reach. 
To one of these letters from a leading editor he re- 
plied on April 10 : 

" The personal advantages you suggest rather tend to repel me. 
The melancholy thing in our public life is the insane desire to get 
higher. . . . But now I can't take that direction, and I will 
be ever so much obliged if you will help drop me out of it as 
smoothly as may be." 

To a member of the State legislature he wrote: 

" Content with the past, I am not in a state of mind about *he 
future. It is for us to act well in the present. George E. Pugh 
used to say there is no political hereafter." 

In the canvass of 1875, so much were the hearts of 
the people set upon having their great State leader 
the National leader, that the masses were invited in 
announcements for political meetings to come out and 
hear " the next President of the United States." 

As illustrating the firmness of Governor Hayes in 
adhering to convictions, we give below a letter ad- 
dressed to Hon. James A. Garfield. It must be remem- 
bered that at the time this letter was written the paper 



NOMINATION TO THE PRESIDENCY. . 145 

money madness prevailed through Ohio and in Con- 
gress to an alarming extent. 

Executive Department, State op Ohio, ) 
Columbus, March 4, 1876. j 
My Dear General: 

I have your note of 2d. I am kept busy with callers, corre- 
spondence, and the routine details of the office, and have not 
therefore tried to keep abreast of the currents of opinion on 
any of the issues. My notion is that the true contest is to be 
between inflation and a sound currency. The Democrats are 
again drifting all to the wrong side. We need not divide on de- 
tails, on methods, or time when. 

The previous question will again be irredeemable paper as a 
permanent policy, or a policy which seeks a return to coin. My 
opinion is decidedly against yielding a hair's breadth. 

We can 't be on the inflation side of the question. We must 
keep our face, our front, firmly in the other direction. " No 
steps backward," must be somethingmore than unmeaning plat- 
form words. " The drift of sentiment among our friends in 
Ohio," which you inquire about, will depend on the conduct of 
our leading men. It is for them to see that the right sentiment 
is steadily upheld. We are in a condition such that firmness 
and adherence to principle are of peculiar value just now. I 
would "consent" to no backward steps. To yield or compro- 
mise is weakness, and will destroy us. If a better resumption 
measure can be substituted for the present one, that may do. 
But keep cool. We can better afford to be beaten in Congress 
than to back out. 

Sincerely, 

R. B. Hayes. 

Here is high courage and lofty political morality. 
The letter proclaims the grand truth that the only in- 
quiry worthy of a statesman is, not what the tendency 
of public opinion is, but what ought it to be ? 

To a delegate to the Cincinnati Convention he 
wrote, under date of April 6 : 



140 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

" Having done absolutely nothing to make myself the candi- 
date of Ohio, I feel very little responsibility for future results. 
When the State Convention was called it seemed probable that 
if I encouraged my friends to organize for the purpose, every 
district would elect my decided supporters. But to make such 
an effort in my own behalf, to use Payne's phrase on repudiation, 
' 1 abhorred.' " 

The Republican State Convention, which met 
March 29, had passed, by a unanimous vote, and with 
boundless enthusiasm, the following resolution : 

" The Republican party of Ohio, having full confidence in the 
honesty, ability, and patriotism of Rutherford B. Hayes, cordi- 
ally presents him to the National Republican Convention, for 
the nomination for president of the United States, and our 
State delegates to that Convention are instructed and the district 
delegates are requested to use their earnest efforts to secure his 
nomination." 

We shall not stop to trace the growth of the Ha} 7 es 
sentiment in other States. When the Sixth Republi- 
can National Convention assembled in Cincinnati, on 
June 14, 1876, the situation was this : Hayes was the 
first choice of every one for the second place on the 
ticket, and every one's second choice for the first. He 
and his friends had in no way antagonized other can- 
didates, and had been guilty of no uncharitableness 
of judgment toward them. In the convention, he 
was modestly presented as the one candidate who 
could harmonize all interests, and unite all party ele- 
ments. Ilis friends argued that he combined merit 
and availability to a higher degree than any one whose 
name was before the convention. 

The spirit of the convention was good, and there 



NOMINATION TO THE PRESIDENCY. 147 

seemed a willing response to this portion of the open- 
ing prayer : 

" By Thy grace, give to them a spirit of concord, that harmony 
may prevail in their counsels; a spirit of wisdom that may dis- 
cern and use the right means to promote the end for which they 
are convened; a spirit of pati'iotism, that the prosperity of the 
Nation may overshadow all personal or sectional desires ; a spirit 
of courage, that they may he faithful to the deepest convictions 
of duty." 

Ex-Governor Morgan, of JSTew York, Chairman of 
the National Executive Committee, in his opening- 
address, pertinently said : 

" Resumption accomplished, then, in all human probability, 
will follow ten or fifteen years of prosperity, equal to that of any 
former period, perhaps greater than the country has yet seen. 
If you will, in addition, put a plank in your platform, declaring 
for such an amendment of the constitution as will extend the 
presidential office to six years, and make the incumbent ineligi- 
ble for re-election, you will deserve the gratitude of the Ameri- 
can people." 

The Hon. Theodore M. Pomeroy, Temporary Chair- 
man, forcibly declared : 

"No, gentlemen, the late war was not a mere prize-fight for 
National supremacy. It was the outgrowth of the conflict of ir- 
reconcilable moral, social, and political forces. Democracy had 
its lot with the moral, social, and political forces of the cause 
which was lost; the Republican party with those which tri- 
umphed and survived. The preservation of the results of that 
victory devolves upon us here and now. Democracy has no tra- 
ditions of the past, no impulses of the present, no aspirations 
for the future, fitting it for this task. The reaction of 1874 has 
already spent itself in a vain effort to realize the situation. It 
has simply demonstrated that no change in the machinery of the 
government can be had outside of the Republican party, without 



148 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

drawing with it a practical nullification of the great work of re- 
construction, financial chaos, and administrative revolution. 
The present House of Representatives has succeeded in nothing. 
except the development of its own incapacity." 

The additional speeches delivered on the first day 
(which was devoted to organization) were hy Senator 
Logan, General Joseph R. Hawley, Ex-Governor 
Noyes, Rev. Henry Highland Garnett, Ex-Governor 
Wm. A. Howard, of Michigan, and Fred. Douglass. 

Mr. Douglass was vociferously applauded, when he 
said : 

" The thing, however, in which I feel the deepest interest, and 
the thing in which I believe this country feels the deepest inter- 
est, is that the principles involved in the contest which carried 
your sons and brothers to the battlefield, which draped our 
Northern churches with the weeds of mourning, and filled our 
towns and our cities with mere stumps of men — armless, legless, 
maimed, and mutilated — the thing for which you poured out your 
blood and piled a debt for after-coming generations higher than 
a mountain of gold, to weigh down the necks of your children 
and your children's children — I say those principles, those prin- 
ciples involved in that tremendous contest, are to be dearer to 
the American people in the great political struggle now upon 
them than any other principles we have." 

The most significant event of the first day's pro- 
ceedings was the reading from the platform, hy George 
William Curtis, of the outspoken address of the Re- 
publican Reform Club of the city of New York. 

The Hon. Edward McPherson, of Pennsylvania, 
was chosen permanent chairman. The important 
events of the second day's proceedings were the adop- 
tion of the platform and the putting presidential can- 
didates in nomination. The candidate the convention 
subsequently selected was placed in nomination by 



NOMINATION TO THE PRESIDENCY. 149 

Ex-Governor Noyes, of Ohio, through the following 
eminently appropriate speech : 

Gentlemen : — On behalf of the forty-four delegates from Ohio, 
representing the entire Republican party of Ohio, 1 have the 
honor to present to this convention the name of a gentleman 
well known and favorably known throughout the country ; one 
held in high respect, and much beloved, by the people of Ohio; 
a man who, during the dark and stormy days of the rebellion, 
when those who are invincible in peace and invisible in battle 
were uttering brave words to cheer their neighbors on, himself, 
in the fore-front of battle, followed his leaders and his flag until 
the authority of our government was established from the lakes 
to the Gulf, and from the river round to the sea. A man who 
has had the rare good fortune since the war was over to be twice 
elected to Congress from the district where he resided, and sub- 
sequently the rarer fortune of beating successively for the high- 
est office in the gift of the people of Ohio, Allen G. Thurman, 
"George H. Pendleton, and William Allen. He is a gentleman 
who has somehow fallen into the habit of defeating Democratic 
aspirants for the Presidency, and we in Ohio all have a notion 
that from long experience he will be able to do it again. In pre- 
senting the name of Governor Hayes, permit me to say we wage 
no war upon the distinguished gentlemen whose names have been 
mentioned here to-day. They have rendered great service to 
their country, which entitles them to our respect and to our 
gratitude. I have no word to utter against them. I only wish 
to say that General Hayes is the peer of these gentlemen in in- 
tegrity, in character, in ability. They appear as equals in all the 
great qualities which fit men for the highest positions which the 
American people can give them. Governor Hayes is honest ; he 
is brave; he is unpretending; he is wise, sagacious, a scholar, and 
a gentleman. Enjoying an independent fortune, the simplicity 
of his private life, his modesty of bearing, is a standing rebuke to 
the extravagance — the reckless extravagance — which leads to 
corruption in public and in private places. 

Remember now, delegates to the convention, that a responsi- 
ble duty rests upon you. You can be governed by no wild im- 
pulse. You can run no fearful risks in this campaign. You 



150 LIFE OP RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

must, if you would succeed, nominate a candidate here who will 
in>t only carry the old, strong Republican States, but who will 
carry Indiana, Ohio, and New York, as well as other doubtful 
States. We care not who the man shall be, other than our own 
candidate. Whoever you nominate, men of the convention, shall 
receive our heartiest and most earnest efforts for their success. 
But we beg to submit that in Governor Hayes you have those 
qualities which are calculated best to compromise all difficulties, 
and to soften all antagonisms. He has no personal enemies. His 
private life is so pure that no man has ever dared to assail it. 
His public acts throughout all these years have been above sus- 
picion even. I ask you, then, if, in the lack of these antagonisms, 
and with all of these good qualities, living in a State which holds 
its election in October, the result of which will be decisive, it 
may be, of the presidential campaign — it is not worth while to 
see to it that a candidate is nominated against whom nothing 
can be said, and who is sure to succeed in the campaign ? 

In conclusion, permit me to say that, if the wisdom of this 
convention shall decide at last that Governor Hayes' nomination 
is safest, and is best, that decision will meet with such responsive 
enthusiasm here in Ohio as will insure Republican success at 
home, and which will be so far-reaching and wide-spreading as 
to make success almost certain from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 

The nomination was seconded by Benjamin F. 
Wade, of Ohio, Colonel J. W. Davis, of West Vir- 
ginia, lion. A. St. Gem, and Hon. J. P. Jones, of Mis- 
souri. 

The third and last day of the sitting of the Con- 
vention was employed inballotting and in making the 
nominations. 

At twenty minutes to 11 the balloting for president 
began : 



NOMINATION TO THE PRESIDENCY. 



151 



FIRST BALLOT. 



1 

STATES. 


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152 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 



The second ballot resulted as follows : Blaine, 296 ; 
Morton, 120; Bristow, 114; Conkling, 93; Hayes, 
64; Hartranft, 63 : Wheeler, 3 ; Washburne, 1. 

Third ballot: Blaine, 293; Bristow, 121; Morton, 
113; Conkling, 90; Hartranft, 68; Hayes, 67; 
Wheeler, 2 ; Washburne, 1. 

Fourth ballot : Blaine, 292 ; Bristow, 126; Morton, 
108 ; Conkling, 84 ; Hartranft, 71 ; Hayes, 68; Wash- 
burne, 3; Wheeler, 2. 

Fifth ballot: Whole number of votes cast, 755. 
Necessary to a choice, 378. Not voting, 1. Blaine, 
286 ; Morton, 95 ; Bristow, 114 ; Conkling, 82 ; Hayes, 
104; Hartranft, 69 ; Wheeler (Mass.), 2 ; Washburne, 
(Ga. 1, 111. 1, Minn. 1), 3. 

On this ballot Hayes passed from the fifth to the 
third place, through the aid of 22 votes cast for him 
by Michigan, and 12 by North Carolina. This was 
the first distinct foreshadowing of the result. 

On the sixth ballot Hayes was second, the vote 
standing: Blaine, 308; Hayes, 113; Bristow, 111; 
Morton, 85; Conkling, 81; Hartranft, 50; Wash- 
burne, 5; Wheeler, 2. 

The decisive ballot stood : 



NOMINATION TO THE PRESIDENCY. 



153 



SEVENTH BALLOT. 



Alabama 

Arkansas 

California 

Connecticut 

Delaware 

Florida 

Georgia 

Illinois 

Indiana 

Iowa 

KaiiBas 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maine 

Maryland 

Massachusetts 

Michigan 

Minnesota 

Mississippi 

Missouri 

Nebraska 

Nevada 

New Hampshire 

New Jersey 

New York 

North Carolina 

Ohio 

Oregon 

Pennsylvania 

Rhode Island 

South Carolina 

Texas 

Tennessee 

Vermont 

Virginia 

West Virginia 

Wisconsin 

Arizona 

Colorado 

Dakotah 

Idaho 

Montana 

New Mexico ... 

Utah 

District of Columbia. 

Washington 

Wyoming 



Totals &VJBL 



The nomination of Governor Hayes was received 
with indescribable enthusiasm, with long-continued 



154 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

cheering, and every other demonstration of joy andl 
delight. 

Outside of Ohio the State that contributed most to ', 
this far-reaching result was Michigan. From the fact 
that Mr. Bristow telegraphed to the Kentucky dele- 
gation several hours before the crisis was reached to 
cast their votes for Hayes, that State should share, 
after Michigan, the honor of achieving the grand re- 
sult. Indiana, North Carolina, and New York fol- 
lowed close upon Kentucky, if it is possible to com- 
pare the value of the aid each State brought. 

On motion of the Hon. Wm. P. Frye, of Maine, 
Rutherford B. Hayes was declared the unanimous 
choice of the Republican IsTatignal Convention for 
President of the United States. 

This great convention concluded its labors by nom- 
inating the able and incorruptible Wm. A. Wheeler, 
of New York, for vice-president by acclamation. 

On the 17th of June, the day following the nomi- 
nation, the committee appointed by the convention to 
notify Governor Hayes of the fact presented them- 
selves in the executive office at Columbus. 

Mr. McPherson, the chairman, approaching him, 
said : 

" Governor Hayes : We have been deputed by the National 
convention of the Republican party, holden at Cincinnati on 
the 14th of the present month, to inform you officially that you 
have been unanimously nominated by that convention for the 
office "f President of the United States. The manner in which 
that action was taken, and the response to it from every portion 
of the country, attest the strength of the popular confidence in 
you and the belief that your administration will be wise, cour- 
ageous, and just. We say, sir, your administration, for we believe 
that the people will confirm the action of the convention, and 



NOMINATION TO THE PRESIDENCY. 155 

thus save the country from the control of the men and the op- 
erations of the principles and policy of the Democratic party. 
We have also been directed to ask your attention to the sum- 
mary of the Eepublican doctrine contained in the platform 
adopted by the convention. In discharging this agreeable duty 
we find cause of congratulation in the harmonious action of the 
convention, and in the hearty response given by the people we 
see the promise of assured success. Ohio, we know, trusts and 
honors you. Henceforth you belong to the whole country. 
Under circumstances so auspicious, we trust you will indicate 
your acceptance of the nomination." 

The governor, who had had no intimation as to 
what the length or character of the address would be, 
was left in doubt with respect to the response expected 
from him by the committee. He, however, without 
embarrassment, but in an intentionally subdued tone 
of voice, gave this appropriately brief reply : 

" Sir: I have only to say in response to your information that 
I accept the nomination. Perhaps at the present time it would 
be improper for me to say more than this, although even now I 
should be glad to give some expression to the profound sense of 
gratitude I feel for the confidence reposed in me by yourselves 
and those for whom you act. At a future time I shall take oc- 
casion to present my acceptance in writing, with my views upon 
the platform." 

Since his nomination for the presidency, Governor 
Hayes has changed in no perceptible respect the 
habits, recreations, or labors of his daily life. He 
rises early and accomplishes much work before break- 
fast. He labors in the executive office in the capitol 
from nine until five, discharging his varied duties as 
governor, answering or dictating the answers to be 
given his official, political, and private correspondence, 
and remainiug at all times accessible to visitors of 



156 LIFE OF TvUTIIERFORD B. HAYES. 

every age, sex, color, and condition, who seek to see 
him. His evenings are passed with his family, or at 
the social parties of his many friends. lie makes his 
customary trips to his home and farms near Fremont, 
and, while profitably managing large property inter- 
ests, finds time to devote to pioneer history, to domes- 
tic architecture, to gardening, to general literature, to 
languages, and other liberal studies and pursuits. He 
is sobered, but not overpowered or oppressed by the 
new responsibilities cast upon him. He suffers him- 
self to be — as he ever has been — natural. Moderate, 
discreet, and wise in all things as he has been in the 
past and is in the present, he is conspicuously one who 
grows wiser each day that he lives. 

Governor Hayes has reached the age of fifty-four, 
is five feet nine inches in height, and weighs one hun- 
dred and eighty pounds. Perfect health and habits 
leave him just in the ripe maturity of physical man- 
hood and mind. His shoulders and breast are broad, 
his frame solid and compact, his limbs muscular and 
strong. He has a fresh, ruddy complexion, is full of 
activity and elasticity, and is very fond of the amuse- 
ments of young people. He lias an exceptionally high 
and full forehead, a prominent nose, and bluish-gray 
eyes. A heavy sandy mustache and beard, which are 
silvered a little, conceal his mouth and chin. His 
light-brown hair is thin and slightly sprinkled with 
gray. 

The Governor is the father of eight children, five 
of whom are now living. Those still living were 
born as follows : Birchard Austin, November 4, 
1853; Webb Cook, March 20, 1856; Rutherford 



NOMINATION TO THE PRESIDENCY. 157 

Piatt, June 24, 1858 ; Fanny Hayes, September 2, 
1867; Scott Russell, February 8, 1871. 

The youngest of these children was born in Colum- 
bus, the others in Cincinnati. The oldest son gradu- 
ated at Cornell University, in the class of 1874, and 
is now at the Harvard Law School. The second son 
passed three years at Cornell, and is now at home. 
The third son is at Cornell. 

Three weeks from the day that Governor Hayes 
was nominated for the Presidency, his private secre- 
tary, Captain A. E. Lee, put upon the telegraphic 
wires, at Columbus, the following accurate copy of 

THE LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 

Columbus, Ohio, July 8, 187G. 
Hon. Edward McPliorson, Hon. Wm. A. Howard, Hon. Joseph 

H. Rainey, and others, Committee of the Republican National 

Convention. 

Gentlemen: In reply to your official communication of June 
17, by which I am informed of my nomination for the office of 
President of the United States by the Republican National 
Convention at Cincinnati, I accept the nomination with grati- 
tude, hoping that, under Providence, I shall be able, if elected, 
to execute the duties of the high office as a trust for the benefit 
of all the people. 

I do not deem it necessary to enter upon any extended exam- 
ination of the declaration of principles made by the convention. 
The resolutions are in accord with my views, and I heartily con- 
cur in the principles they announce. In several of the resolu- 
tions, however, questions are considered which are of such im- 
portance that I deem it proDer to briefly express my convictions 
in regard to them. 

The fifth resolution adopted by the convention is of paramount 
interest. More than forty years ago, a system of making appoint- 
ments to office grew up, based upon the maxim " To the victors 
belong the spoils." The old rule — the true rule — that honesty, 
capacity, and fidelity constitute the only real qualifications for 



158 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

office, and that there is no other claim, gave place to the idea 
that party services were to be chiefly considered' All parties, in 
practice, have adopted this system. It has been essentially modi- 
fied since its first introduction. It has not, however, been im- 
proved. 

At first the president, either directly or through the heads of 
departments, made all the appointments. Eut gradually the 
appointing power, in many cases, passed into the control of mem- 
bers of Congress. The offices, in these cases, have become not 
merely rewards for party services, but rewards for services to 
party leaders. This system destroys the independence of the 
separate departments of the government; it tends directly to 
extravagance and official incapacity; it is a temptation to dis- 
honesty; it hinders and impairs that careful supervision and 
strict accountability by which alone faithful and efficient public 
service can be secured ; it obstructs the prompt removal and 
sure punishment of the unworthy. In eveiy way it degrades the 
civil service and the character of the government. It is felt, I 
am confident, by a large majority of the members of Congress, 
to be an intolerable burden, and an unwarrantable hindrance to 
the proper discharge of their legitimate duties. It ought to be 
abolished. The refoi*m should be thorough, radical, and com- 
plete. 

We should return to the principles and practice of the foun- 
ders of the government, supplying by legislation, when needed, 
that which was formerly established custom. They neither ex- 
pected nor desired from the public officer any partisan service. 
They meant that public officers should owe their whole service to 
the government and to the people. They meant that the officer 
should be secure in his tenure as long as his personal character 
remained untarnished, and the performance of his duties satis- 
factory. If elected, I shall conduct the administration of the 
government upon these principles ; and all constitutional powers 
vested in the executive will be employed to establish this reform. 

The declaration of principles by the Cincinnati Convention 
makes no announcement in favor of a single presidential term. 
I do not assume to add to that declaration ; but, believing that 
the restoration of the civil service to the system established by 
Washington and followed by the early presidents can be best ac- 
complished by an executive who is under no temptation te> use 



NOMINATION TO THE PRESIDENCY. 159 

the patronage of his office to promote his own re-election, I de- 
sire to perform what I regard as a duty, in stating now my in- 
flexible purpose, if elected, not to be a candidate for election 
to a second term. 

On the currency question, I have frequently expressed my 
views in public, and I stand by m}' record on this subject. 1 re- 
gard all the laws of the United States relating to the payment 
of the public indebtedness, the legal tender notes included, as 
constituting a pledge and moral obligation of the Government, 
which must in good faith be kept. It is my conviction that the 
feeling of uncertainty inseparable from an irredeemable paper 
currency, with its fluctuations of values, is one of the great ob- 
stacles to a revival of confidence and business, and to a return 
of prosperity. That uncertainty can be ended in but one way — 
the resumption of specie payments; but the longer the insta- 
bility connected with our present money system is permitted to 
continue, the greater will be the injury inflicted upon our eco- 
nomical interests, and all classes of society. 

If elected, I shall approve every appropriate measure to ac- 
complish the desired end, and shall oppose any step backward. 

The resolution with respect to the public school system is one 
which should receive the hearty support of the American people. 
Agitation upon this subject is to be apprehended, until, by con- 
stitutional amendment, the schools are placed beyond all danger 
of sectarian control or interference. The Republican party is 
pledged to secure such an amendment. 

The resolution of the convention on the subject of the perma- 
nent pacification of the country, and the complete pi'otection of 
all its citizens in the free enjoyment of all their constitutional 
rights, is timely and of great importance. The condition of the 
Southern States attracts the attention and commands the sym- 
pathy of the people of the whole Union. In their progressive 
recovery from the effects of the war, their first necessity is an 
intelligent and honest administration of government, which will 
protect all classes of citizens in all their political and private rights. 
What the Soirth most needs is peace, and peace depends upon 
the supremacy of law. There can be no enduring peace if the 
constitutional rights of any portion of the people are habitually 
disregarded. A division of political parties, resting merely upon 
distinctions of I'ace, or upon sectional lines, is always unfortu- 



1G0 LIFE OF RUTIIERFORD B. HAYES. 

nate, and may be disastrous. The welfare of the South, alike 
with that of every other part of the country, depends upon the 
attractions it can offer to labor, to immigration, and to capital. 
But laborers will not go, and capital will not bo ventured, where 
the constitution and the laws are set at defiance, and distraction, 
apprehension, and alarm, take the place of peace-loving and 
law-abiding social life. All parts of the constitution are sacred, 
and must be sacredly observed — the parts that are new no less 
than the parts that are old. The moral and material prosperity 
of the Southern States can be most effectively advanced by a 
hearty and generous recognition of the rights of all by all — a 
recognition without reserve or exception. 

With such a recognition fully accorded, it will be practicable 
to promote, by the influence of ail legitimate agencies of the 
general government, the efforts of the people of those States to 
obtain for themselves the blessings of honest and capable local 
government. 

If elected, I shall consider it not only my duty, but it will be 
my ardent desire, to labor for the attainment of this end. 

Let me assure my countrymen of the Southern States that if 
I shall be charged with the duty of organizing an Administration, 
it will be one which will regard and cherish their truest interests 
— the interests of the white and of the colored people both, and 
equally; and which will put forth its best efforts in behalf of a 
civil policy which will wipe out forever the distinction between 
North and South in our common country. 

With a civil service organized upon a system which will secure 
purity, experience, efficiency, and economy ; with a strict regard 
for the public welfare, solely, in appointments; with the speedy, 
thorough, and unsparing prosecution and punishment of all pub- 
lic officers who betray official trusts ; with a sound currency ; 
with education unsectarian and free to all; with simplicity and 
frugality in public and private affairs, and with a fraternal spirit 
of harmony pervading the people of all sections and classes, we 
may reasonably hope that the second century of our existence 
as a Nation will, by the blessing of God, be pre-'eminent as an 
era of good feeling, and a period of progress, prosperity, and 
happiness. Very respectfully, 

Your fellow-citizen, 

B. B. Hayes. 



NOMINATION TO THE PRESIDENCY, 1G1 

The non-partisan verdict upon this letter is that it 
is faultless in style, sound in principle, courageous, 
broad and elevated in tone, liberal, wise, statesman- 
like, and strong. It is, in short, the declaration of 
faith of an honest man who has a heart in his breast 
and a head on his shoulders, with purity in that heart 
and brains in that head. 

The conclusions which follow our study of the pub- 
lic career of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, and the 
study of that interior life, the beauty of which the 
world will not know until he has passed from it, arc 
briefly these. 

In boyhood, in battle, in the civic chair, in the es- 
teem of his State, in every duty and relation of life, 
he has been first, and now, it would seem, is first in 
the hearts of his countrymen. As a student, he was 
foremost ; as a lawyer, he was in the front rank; as a 
soldier, he was the bravest ; as a legislator, the most 
judicious ; as a governor, second to none of Ohio's 
great magistrates. 

The most striking characteristic of Hayes as a sol- 
dier was his personal intrepidity. Anthony Wayne, 
Francis Marion, and Ethan Allen were called brave 
men in the Revolution, and so they were ; but we look 
in vain in their histories for as numerous proofs of 
unsurpassable daring as the hero of Cloyd Mountain, 
Cedar Creek, and South Mountain, has given us. 
Four horses shot under him ; four wounds in action ; 
fighting after he fell ; a hundred days exposed to 
death under tire — these are the evidences of as lofty 
a courage as is yet known among men. 

As a regimental, brigade, and division commander, 
his most striking quality as a leader was his impetu- 



162 LIFE OF ■RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

osity. General Crook used to say that Hayes fought 
infantry as other men fought cavalry. He was alwa} r s 
wanting to move forward, to charge, to get at the 
enemy with cold steel. His favorite step was the 
double-quick ; his choice of distance two paces ; and 
his preferred mode of fighting, the hand-to-hand grap- 
ple. This meant business, w r as decisive, and was soon 
over. 

Another characteristic was his constant care for the 
comfort of his soldiers. He was much in the hospitals, 
cheering up the wounded, writing letters for them, 
and sending last messages from the lips of the dying 
to wives, mothers, and friends. He shared his blanket, 
his last crust, his last penny, with the neediest of his 
men, and abstained from food when they had none. 

His house is to-day, and has been since the war, a 
soldiers' home, where all who served with him are in- 
vited to come at all times and partake at his own 
table with his wife and children. Seldom is this gen- 
erous hospitality imposed on by the members of his 
large military family. Once, only, a pseudo-soldier, 
whom the children called the " Veteran," having 
served two days and a half in the army, remained 
just double the term of his military service under the 
governor's roof. He doubtless found that the rations 
at this camp were good. 

As a civil magistrate, Governor Hayes has devel- 
oped executive and administrative abilities of the 
highest order. He has a practical, common-sense, 
direct way of doing things. He first finds what 
things ought to be done, and then how. When his 
own party has been in a minority, he has made 
friends with a few of the most reasonable men in the 



'. 



NOMINATION TO THE PRESIDENCY. 1G3 

opposition, and through them, as instruments, has ac- 
complished his purposes. 

lie is a discriminating judge of human nature, and 
is magnetic enough to make legislators follow his 
lead, as his soldiers followed him. 

He has fixed rules of official conduct to which he 
adheres iu all cases. For example, if he has a judge 
to appoint — and he has appointed many to fill vacan- 
cies — his simple inquiry is, "Whom do the members of 
the legal profession want, who live in the judicial 
district to be provided for ? When that fact is accu- 
rately ascertained, the appointment follows as a mat- 
ter of course, even though the lawyer preferred may 
be his personal enemy. In the interests of learning, 
higher education, human benevolence, and equal 
rights, Hayes has accomplished more than any gov- 
ernor Ohio has yet had. We make this statement 
with the honorable records of old Jeremiah Morrow, 
Corwin, Chase, Tod, Brough, and Cox spread before 
us. 

In a word, Governor Hayes is square-built, solid 
and sound, mentally, morally, and physically. His in- 
tegrity is a proverb ; his fidelity to his convictions is 
recognized by political enemies ; his record is of un- 
assailable soundness ; and there is absolutely nothing 
vulnerable in his character. He has a Lincoln-like 
soundness of judgment, and is as inexorably just as 
old John Marshall. He is a man absolutely free from 
eccentricities and afi'ectations ; he neither walks nor 
talks on stilts. His manners have the warmth and 
grace that sincerity and simplicity give. In bearing, 
he is animated and thoughtful, manly and refined. 
His firmness, while it does not amount to obstinacy, 



1G4 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

marks the clear-cut individuality and decision of his 
character. He has the guiding faculty and the power 
of containing himself. He takes a just measure both 
of himself and of other men. If the country will do 
this, his future is as secure as his past. If president, 
he would do the right thing at the right time, in the 
right way. His election will give us, not a " solid 
South" or a solid North, but a solid Union ! 

Since experience has taught us how essential it is 
that the representative of the women of America in 
the executive mansion should worthily represent all 
that is best and most elevated in our social life, a word 
in regard to the companion of Governor Hayes may 
not be out of taste. If any public man in our history 
has been more fortunate and happy in his home sur- 
roundings and family relations, we are not aware who 
he may be. If the voice of the people should decree 
the transplanting of the ideal home of this family 
from the capital of Ohio to the capital of the Repub- 
lic, the pure and elevating influences radiating from 
such a home would pervade and purify the social life of 
the National city, if not of the land. A severer simplic- 
ity would mark the inner and the outer life of the 
president's household. Extravagance in dress and 
living, wastefulness in vain displays and in ambitious 
entertainments, would find no encouragement from 
the mistress of the Nation's mansion. The lessons 
of truth and piety, of purity and virtue, of charity 
and benevolence, of sincerity and self-forgetfulness, 
would be taught by example. A whole people could 
here find in illustration the sacredness of the family 
and the holiness of home. 

A union of rare accomplishments, social and do- 



NOMINATION TO TIIE PEESIDENCY. 1G5 

mestic, with beauty of features, manners, and char- 
acter, may yet be found in a successor of Mrs. Mad- 
ison. 

A doctor of divinity and a doctor of laws, the pres- 
ident of the Ohio Wesleyan University, bears this 
weighty testimony, in a public address, to the correct- 
ness of what we have hereinbefore recorded : 

" It is in no spirit of partisanship, nor with the slightest refer- 
ence to merely political ends, but simply in illustration of our 
subject that we add, already there aTe hopeful signs of reforma- 
tion in our National life. It is a sign of progress that the sus- 
picion of sullied purity is beginning to be fatal to a public man. 
It is an omen of good when in a large and representative con- 
vention, with the names of many distinguished men before it, 
one is borne above them all on the tide of popular enthusiasm 
and with ringing peals of applause is presented to the American 
people, without effort of his own, as a candidate for the highest 
office in the Nation, not only because of his eminent ability, but 
largely because of the transparent purity of his character and 
his high, manly, moral worth. 

" It is doubtless a cause of honest pride to the citizens of this 
town, irrespective of political creeds and preferences, that the 
man thus highly distinguished is a native of your classic city. 
By reason of its youth this university can not claim him as a 
son, but it regards with maternal pride his not less worthy com- 
panion, who, after graduation at one of the best female colleges 
in the State, indicated her rare good sense by passing through 
much of the college curriculum of our university here. 

" If, by the decree of the people and the providence of God, this 
worthy pair, honored graduates of Ohio's higher schools of learn- 
ing, shall be lifted to the highest position and power and influ- 
ence in the Nation, we have reason to believe that they will 
illustrate the salutary influence of that cultured goodness of 
which we have spoken, and that the National capital and the 
entire National domain will enjoy a purer atmosphere." 



APPENDIX. 



Speech of General R. B. Hayes, delivered at Lebanon, 
Ohio, August 5, 18G7. 

Fellow-Citizens : 

President Lincoln began his memorable address at the dedi- 
cation of the Gettysburg National Cemetery with these words : 

" Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on 
this continent a new Nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated 
to the proposition that all men are created equal." 

This was Abraham Lincoln's opinion of what was accom- 
plished and what was meant by the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence. His idea was that it gave birth to a Nation, and that it 
dedicated that Nation to equal rights. 

Now, so far as the performance of duty in the present condi- 
tion of our country is concerned, "this is the whole law and the 
prophets." The United States are not a confederacy of inde- 
pendent and sovereign States, bound together by a mere treaty 
or a compact, but the people of the United States constitute a Na- 
tion, having one flag, one history, "one country, one constitu- 
tion, one destiny." Whoever seeks to divide this Nation into 
two sections — into a North and a South, or into four sections, ac- 
cording to the cardinal points of the compass, or into thirty or 
forty independent sovereignties — is opposed to the Nation, and 
the Nation's friends should be opposed to him. 

Washington, in his Farewell Address, says : 

" The unity of government, which constitutes you one people, 
is also now dear to you. It is justly so; for it is a main pillar in 
the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tran- 
quillity at home, your peace abroad ; of your safety, of your pros- 
perity, of that very liberty which you so highly prize. . . . 
The name of American, which belongs to you in your National 

(167) 



168 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more 
than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With 
slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, 
habits, and political principles. You have, in a common cause, 
fought and triumphed together; the independence and liberty 
you possess are the work of joint counsels and joint efforts — of 
common dangers, sufferings, and successes." 

The sentiment of Nationality is the sentiment of the Declara- 
tion of Independence ; it is the sentiment of the fathers ; it is 
the sentiment which carried us through the war of the Revolu- 
tion, and through the war of the late Rebellion ; and it is a sen- 
timent which the people of the United States ought forever to 
cultivate and cherish. 

Wfcie great idea to which the Nation, according to Mr. Lincoln, 
was dedicated by the fathers is expressed in the Declaration in 
these familiar phrases : " We hold these truths to be self-evident, 
that all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their 
Creator with certain inalienable rights ; that among these are 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these 
rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their 
just powers from the consent of the governed." 

An intelligent audience will not wish to hear discussion as to 
the import of these sentences. Their language is simple, their 
meaning plain, and their truth undoubted. The equality de- 
clared by the fathers was not an equality of beauty, of physical 
strength, or of intellect, but an equality of rights. Foolish at- 
tempts have been made by those who hate the principles of the 
fathers to destroy the great fundamental truth of the Declara- 
tion, by limiting the application of the phrase " all men " to the 
men of a single race. 

But Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration leaves no 
room to doubt what he meant by these words. The gravest 
charge he made against the King of Great Britain in the orig- 
inal draft of the Declaration of Independence was the follow- 
ing: 

" lie has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violat- 
ing its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a 
distant people, who never offended him, capturing and carrying 
them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable 
death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, 






APPENDIX. 1 GO 



the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian 
King of Great Britain, determined to keep open market where 
MEN should be bought and sold." 

In this sentence the word "men" is written by Jefferson in 
capital letters, showing with what emphasis he wished to declare 
that the King of Great Britain was making slaves of a people to 
whom belonged the rights of men. 

Unfortunately for our country, that King, and others who 
" waged cruel war against human nature itself," had already suc- 
ceeded in planting in the bosom of American society an element 
implacably hostile to human rights, and destined to become the 
enemy of the Union, whenever the American people, in their 
National capacity, should refuse assent to any measures which 
the holders of slaves should deem necessary or even important 
for the security or prosperity of their "peculiar institution." 

I need not, upon this occasion, repeat what is now familiar his- 
tory — how, by the invention of the cotton-gin, and the conse- 
quent enormous increase of the cotton crop, slave labor in the 
cotton States, and slave breeding in the Northern slave States, 
became so profitable that the slaveholders were able, for many 
years, largely to influence, if not control, every department of 
the National Government, The slave power became something 
more than a phrase— it was a definite, established, appalling 
fact. The Missouri controversy, South Carolina nullification, the 
Texas controversy, the adoption of the compromise measures 
of 1850, and the repeal of the Missouri compromise in 1854, 
were all occasions when the country was compelled to see the 
magnitude, the energy, the recklessness, and the arrogance of 
the slave power. 

Precisely when the men who wielded that power determined 
to destroy the Union it is not now necessary to inquire. Threats 
of disunion were made in tlie first Congress that assembled 
under the constitution. Upon various pretexts they were re- 
peated from time to time, and no one doubts that slavery was at 
the bottom of them. In 1833 General Jackson wrote to Rev. A. 
J. Crawford: "Take care of your nullifiers; you have them 
among you ; let them meet with the indignant frown of every 
man who loves his country. The tariff, it is now known, was a 
mere pretext, . . . and disunion and a Southern Confed- 
eracy the real object, The next pretext will be the negro or 



170 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

slavery question." General Jackson was no doubt right as to 
the existence of a settled purpose to break up the Union, and 
to establish a Southern Confederacy, as long ago as 1832. But 
why was there such a purpose ? On what ground did it stand ? 

Great political parties, whether sectional or otherwise, do not 
come by accident, nor are they the invention of political in- 
trigue. A faction born of a clique may have some strength at 
one or two elections, but the wisest political wire-workers can 
not, by merely '" taking thought," create a strong and permanent 
party. The result of the Philadelphia Convention last summer 
probably taught this truth to the authors of that movement. 
Great political movements always have some adequate cause. 

Now, on what did the conspirators who plotted the destruc 
tion of the Union and the establishment of a Southern Confed- 
eracy rely ? In the first place, they taught a false construction 
of the National constitution, which was miscalled State rights, 
the essential part of which was that " any State of the Union 
might secede from the Union whenever it liked." This doctrine 
was the instrument employed to destroy the unity of the Nation. 
The fact which gave strength and energy to those who employed 
this instrument was that in the southern half of the Union, so- 
ciety, business, property, religion, and law were all based on the 
proposition that over four millions of our countrymen, capable 
of civilization and religion, were, because of their race and color, 
"so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man 
was bound to respect." The practice, founded upon this denial 
of the Declaration of Independence, protected by law and sanc- 
tioned by usage, was our great National transgression, and was 
the cause of our great National calamity. 

In a country where discussion was free, sooner or later, parties 
were sure to be formed on the issues presented by the slavehold- 
ers. The supporters of the Union and of human rights wovdd 
band together against the supporters of disunion and slavery. 
For many years after the struggle really began, the issues were 
not clearly defined, and neither party was able to occupy its true 
and final position, or to rally to its standard all who were in fact 
its friends. Old parties incumbered the ground. Men were 
slow to give up old associations and leave the discussion of obso- 
lete, immaterial, or ephemeral issues. 

At last the crisis came. In I860,- Mr. Lincoln, who was un- 



APPENDIX. 171 



friendly to slavery and faithful to the Union, was elected presi- 
dent. The party of disunion and slavery were prepared for this 
event. Their action was prompt, decisive, and defiant. They 
proceeded to organize southern conventions, and formally to 
withdraw from the Union, and undertook to establish a new 
government and a new Nation on the soil of the United States. 

Prior to I860 the party calling itself Democratic had gathered 
under one name and one organization almost the whole of the 
secessionists of the South, and a large body of the people of the 
North, many of whom had no sympathy either with secession 
or slavery. In I860 the secessionists were so arrogant in their 
demands that the great body of the Democratic party in the 
North refused to yield to them, and supported Mr. Douglass in 
opposition both to Mr. Lincoln, and to the disunion and slavery 
candidate, Mr. Breckinridge. But it was well known that many 
leading Democrats who supported Mr. Douglass leaned strongly 
toward the southern Calhoun democracy, and that their sympa- 
thies were with slaveholding, or at least with slaveholders. 

The evidence of this is abundantly furnished in their recorded 
opinions. The most distinguished and perhaps the most in- 
fluential Democrat now actively engaged in politics in Ohio, who 
presided over and addressed the last Democratic State Conven- 
tion held at Columbus, Mr. Pendleton, delivered a speech in the 
House of Representatives on the 18th of January, 1861. 

You will recollect how far the slaveholders had progressed in 
their great rebellion at that date. Mr. Pendleton himself says: 

" To-day, sir, four States of this Union have, so far as their 
power extends, seceded from it. Four States, as far as they are 
able, have annulled the grants of power made to the Federal 
Government; they have resumed the powers delegated by the 
Constitution ; they have canceled, so far as they could, every 
limitation upon the full exercise of all their sovereign rights. 
They do not claim our protection; they ask no benefit from our 
laws; they seek none of the advantages of the confederation. 
On the other hand, they renounce their allegiance ; they repu- 
diate our authority over them, and they assert that they have 
assumed — some of them that they have resumed — their position 
among the family of sovereignties, among the nations of the 
earth. . . . To-day, even while I am speaking, Georgia is vot- 
ing upon this very question. And unless the signs of the times 



172 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

very much deceive us, within three weeks other States will be 
added to the number." 

Mr. Pendleton might also have said that prior to that date, forts, 
arsenals, dock-yards, mints, and other places and property be- 
longing to the United States, had been seized by organized and 
armed bodies of rebels ; the collection of debts due in the South 
to Northern creditors had been stopped; South Carolina had de- 
clared that any attempt to reinforce Fort Sumter by the United 
States would be regarded by that State as an act of hostility 
against her and equivalent to a declaration of war; the Star of 
the West, an unarmed vessel, with the American flag floating at 
her mast-head, carrying provisions to the famishing garrison of 
Fort Sumter, had been fired on and driven from Charleston har- 
bor ; in short, at that date the rebels were engaged in actual war 
against the Nation, and the only reason why blood had not been 
shed was that the National government had failed in its duty to 
defend the Nation's property, and to maintain the sacredness of 
the National flag. 

At that crisis Mr. Pendleton delivered and sent forth a speech 
bearing this significant motto : " But, sir, armies, money, blood, 
can not maintain this Union — justice, reason, peace, may." The 
speech was according to its motto. Accustomed as he is to speak 
cautiously, and in a scholarly and moderate way, we can not be 
mistaken as to his drift. On the authority of the National gov- 
ernment he says : 

" Now, sir, what force of arms can compel a State to do that 
which she has agreed to do ? What force of arms can compel a 
State to refrain from doing that which her State government, 
supported by the sentiment of her people, is determined to per- 
sist in doing. . . . Sir, the whole scheme of coercion is im- 
practicable. It is contrary to the genius and spirit of the Con- 
stitution." 

These extracts sufficiently and fairly show Mr. Pendleton's no- 
tion of the duty and authority of the Nation in that great crisis. 
He held the States rights doctrines of Calhoun and Breckin- 
ridge, and not the National principles of Washington and Jack 
son. 

As to the treatment of rebels already in arms, and as to the 
"demands" of the slave power, consider this advice which he 
gave to Congress and the people: 



APPENDIX. 173 



" If these Southern States can not be conciliated; if you, gen- 
tlemen, can not find it in your hearts to grant their demands; 
if they must leave the family mansion, I would signalize their 
departure by tokens of love; I would bid them farewell so ten- 
derly that they would be forever touched by the recollection of 
it; and if in the vicissitudes of their separate existence they 
should desire to come together with us again in one common 
government, there should be no pride to be humiliated, there 
should be no wound inflicted by my hand to be healed. They 
should come and be welcome to the places they now occupy." 

Thus we see there were those who, with honeyed phrases and 
soft words, would have looked smilingly on, while the great Re- 
public — the pride of her children, the hope of the ages — built 
by the fathers at such an expense of suffering, of treasure, and 
of blood, was stricken by traitors' hands from the roll of living 
Nations, and while an armed oligarchy should establish in its 
stead a nation founded on a denial of human rights, and under 
whose sway south of the Potomac more than half of the terri- 
tory of the old Thirteen Colonies— soil once fertilized by the 
best blood of the Revolution— should, for generations to come, 
continue to be tilled by the unrequited toil of slaves. 

The best known, the boldest, and perhaps the ablest leader of 
the peace Democracy in the North is Mr. Vallandigham. He 
was chairman of the committee on resolutions in the last Dem- 
ocratic State Convention in Ohio, and reported the present State 
platform of his party. He, probably, still enjoys in a greater de- 
gree than any other public man the affection and confidence of 
the positive men of the Ohio Democracy, who, from beginning 
to end, opposed the war. On the 20th of February, 1861, he de- 
livered a speech in the House of Representatives in support of 
certain amendments which he proposed to the Constitution of 
the United States. In an appendix to that speech, he published 
an extract fpom a card in the Cincinnati Enquirer of November 
JO, 1860, from which I quote : 

"And now let me add that I did say, ... in a public 
speech, at the Cooper Institute, on the 2d of November, 1860, 
that if any one or more of the States of this Uuion should at 
any time secede, for reasons of the sufficiency and justice of 
which, before God and the great tribunal of history, they alone 
may judge, much as I should deplore it, I never would, as a rep- 



174 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

resentativo in Congress of the United States, vote one dollar of 
money whereby one drop of American blood should be shed in 
a civil war. . . . And I now deliberately repeat and reaffirm 
it, resolved, though I stand alone, though all others yield and fall 
away, to make it good to the last moment of my public life." 
Here was another strong man of large influence solemnly pledged 
to allow the Union to be broken up and destroyed, in case the 
rebel conspirators chose that alternative, rather than forego 
their demands in favor of oppression and against human rights. 

On the 23d of January, 1861, the Democratic party held a 
State Convention at Columbus. Remember, at that date the air 
was thick with threats of war from the South. The rebels were 
organizing and drilling ; arms robbed from the National arsenals 
were in their hands; and the question upon all minds was 
whether the Republic should perish without having a single 
blow struck in her defense, or whether the people of the loyal 
North should rise as one man, prepared to wage war until treason 
and, if need be, slavery went down together. On this question, 
that convention was bound to speak. Silence was impossible. 
There were present war Democrats and peace Democrats, follow- 
ers of Jackson, and followers of Calhoun. There was a deter- 
mined and gallant struggle on the part of the war Democrats, 
but the superior numbers, or more probably the superior tactics 
and strategy, of the peace men triumphed. 

The present candidate of the Democratic party for Governor 
of Ohio, Judge Thurman, a gentleman of character and ability, 
a distinguished lawyer and judge, and a politician of long expe- 
rience, succeeded in passing through the convention this resolu- 
tion : 

"Resolved, That the two hundred thousand Democrats of Ohio 
send to the people of the United Stares, both North and South, 
greeting ; and when the people of the North shall have fulfilled 
their duties to the constitution and to the South, then, and not 
until then, will it be proper for them to take into consideration 
the question of the right and propriety of coercion." 

In support of this famous resolution, Judge Thurman ad- 
dressed the convention, and, among other things, is reported to 
have -aid : 

"A man is deficient in understanding who thinks the cause of 
disunion is thai the South apprehended any overt act of oppres- 



APPENDIX. 1?5 



sion in Lincoln's administration. It is the spirit of the lato 
presidential contest that alarms the South. ... It would 
try the ethics of any man to deny that some of the Southern 
States have no cause for revolution. . . . Then you must be 
sure you are able to coerce before you begin the work. The 
South are a brave people. The Southern States can not be held 
by force. The blacks won't fight for the invaders. . . . The 
Hungarians had less cause of complaint against Austria than the 
South had against the North." 

When we reflect on what the rebels had done and what they 
were doing when this resolution was passed, it seems incredible 
that sane men, having a spark of patriotism, could for one mo- 
ment have tolerated its sentiments. The rebels had already de- 
prived the United States of its jurisdiction and property in 
about one-fourth of its inhabited territory, and were rapidly ex- 
tending their insurrection so as to include within the rebel lines 
all of the slave States. The lives and property of Union citizens 
in the insurgent States were at the mercy of traitors, and the 
National flag was everywhere torn down, and shameful indigni- 
ties and outrages heaped upon all who honored it. 

This resolution speaks of fulfilling the duties of the people of 
the North to the South. The first and highest duty of the peo- 
ple of the North to themselves, to the South, to their country, 
and to God, was to crush the rebellion. All speeches and reso- 
lutions against either the right or the propriety of coercion 
merely gave encouragement, "moral aid and comfort," more im- 
portant than powder and ball, to the enemies of the Nation. 

Do I state, too strongly the mischievous, the fatal tendency of 
these proceedings ? The resolution adopted by the peace Demo- 
cracy of Ohio is addressed in terms " to the people of all the 
States, North and South," and in fact was sent, 1 am informed, 
to the governors of all the States. 

In the South, Union men were laboring by every means in 
their power to prevent secession. Their most cogent argument 
was that the National government would defend itself by war 
against rebellion. To this, the rebel reply was, " There will be 
no war. Secession will be peaceable. The peace party of the 
North will prevent coercion. If there is fighting, it will be as 
Ex-President Pierce writes to Jefferson Davis, ■ The fighting will 



176 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

not be along Mason and Dixon's line merely. It will be within 
our own borders, in our own streets.' " 

For the evidence of the correctness of this opinion, the rebels 
could point confidently to such speeches and resolutions as those 
we are now considering. Governor Orr, of South Carolina, in a 
recent speech at the Charleston Board of Trade banquet, is re- 
ported to have said : 

" I know there is an apprehension widespread in the North and 
West that, after the reconstruction of the Southern States, we 
shall fall into the arms of our old allies and associates, the old 
Democratic party. I say to you, gentlemen, however, that I 
would give no such pledges. We have accounts to settle with 
that party, gentlemen, before I, at least, will consent to affiliate 
with it. Many of you will remember that, when the war first 
commenced, great hopes and expectations were held out by our 
friends in the North and West that there would be no war, and 
that if it commenced, it would be North of Mason and Dixon's 
line, and not in the South." 

Without pausing to inquire how much strength accrued to the 
rebellion in its earlier stages by the encouragement it received 
from sympathizers in the North, let us pass on to the spring and 
Bummer of 1861, after the bombardment and surrender of Fort 
Sumter, and when the armies of the Union and of the rebel- 
lion were facing each other upon a line of operations extending 
from the Potomac to the Kio Grande. The most superficial ob- 
server could not fail to discover these facts. 

In the South, where slavery was strongest, the rebellion was 
strongest. Where there were few slaveholders, there were few 
rebels. South Carolina and Mississq}pi, having the largest num- 
ber of slaves in proportion to population, were almost unani- 
mous for rebellion. Western Virginia, Eastern Kentucky, East 
Tennessee, had few slaves, and love of the Union and hatred of 
secession in those mountain regions was nearly universal. 

The counterpart of this was found everywhere in the North. 
In counties and districts where the majority of the people had 
been accustomed to defend or excuse the practice of slavehold- 
ing and the aggressions of the slaveholders, there was much 
sympathy with the rebellion and strong opposition to the war. 
.Miii wlio abused and hated negroes did not usually hate rebels. 






APPENDIX. 177 



On the other hand, anti-slavery counties and districts were quite 
sure to be Union to the core. 

In Ohio, as in other free States, the Democratic party could 
not be led off in a body after the peace Democracy. Brough, 
Tod, Matthews, Dorsey, Steedman, and a host of Democrats of 
the Jackson school, nobly«kept the faith. Lytic, McCook, Web- 
ster, and gallant spirits like them, from every county and neigh- 
borhood of our State, sealed their devotion to the Union and 
to true Democracy with their life's blood. 

They believed, with Douglass, in the last letter he ever wrote, 
that " it was not a party question, nor a question involving par- 
tisan policy ; it was a question of government or no government, 
country or no country, and hence it became the imperative duty 
of every Union man, every friend of constitutional liberty, to 
rally to the support of our common country, its government and 
flag, as the only means of checking the progress of revolution, 
and of preserving the Union of the States." 

They believed the words of Douglass' last speech : " This is no 
time for a detail of causes. The conspiracy is now known. 
Armies have been raised, war is levied to accomplish it. There 
are only two sides to the question. Every man must be for the 
United States or against it. There can be no neutrals in this 
war — only patriots and traitors." 

As the war progressed, the great political parties of the coun- 
try underwent important changes, both of organization and pol- 
icy. In the North, the Republican party, the great body of the 
American or Union party of 1860, and the war Democracy formed 
the Union party. The Democracy of the South, for the most 
part, became rebels, and in the North those who did not unite 
with the Union party generally passed under the control and 
leadership of the peace Democracy. 

At the beginning of the war, the creed of the Union party 
consisted of one idea — it labored for one object — the restoration 
of the Union. Slavery, the rights of man, the principles of the 
Declaration of Independence, were for the time lost sight of in 
the struggle for the Nation's life. As late as August, 1862, Presi- 
dent Lincoln wrote to Mr. Greeley: "My paramount object is 
to save the Union, and not either to save or to destroy slavery. 
If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do 
it ; and if I could save it by freeing nil the slaves, I would do it ; 



178 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, T 
would also do that." 

Slowly, gradually, after repeated disasters and disappoint- 
ments, the eyes of the Union leaders were opened to the fact 
that slavery and rebellion were convertible terms ; that the Con- 
federacy, according to its Vice-President, Alexander H. Stephens, 
was founded upon " exactly the opposite idea " from that of Jef- 
ferson and the fathers. " Its foundations," said he, '" are laid, its 
corner-stone rests upon the great truth that the negro is not 
equal to the white man ; that slavery, subordination to the supe- 
rior race, is his natural and normal condition." Mr. Lincoln 
and the Union party, struggling faithfully onward, finally 
reached the solid ground that the American government was 
founded on the broad principles of right, justice, and humanity, 
and that, for this Nation, "Union and liberty" were indeed 
"one and inseparable." 

The leaders of the peace Democracy were for a time over- 
whelmed by the popular uprising which followed the attack on 
Fort Sumter, and were not able during the year 1861 or the early 
part of 1862 to mark out definitely the course to be pursued. 
But, like the Union party, they gradually approached the posi- 
tion they were ultimately to occupy. 

Their success in the autumn elections of 1862 encouraged them 
to enter upon the pathway in which they have plodded along 
consistently if not prosperously ever since. Opposition to the 
war measures of Mr. Lincoln's administration, and in particular 
to every measure tending to the enfranchisement and elevation 
of the African race, became their settled policy. By this policy 
they were placed in harmony with their former associates, the 
rebels of the South. The rebels were fighting to destroy the 
Union. The peace party were opposing the only measures which 
could save it. The rebels were fighting for slavery. The peace 
party were laboring in their way to keep alive and inflame the 
prejudice against race and color, on which slavery was based. 

The abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, the re- 
peal of the fugitive slave law, Mr. Lincoln's proclamation of 
emancipation, in a word, every step of the Union party toward 
enfranchisement of the colored people, the peace Democracy 
opposed. Every war measure, every means adopted to strengthen 
the cause of the Union and weaken the rebellion, met with the 






APPENDIX. 170 



the same opposition. Whatever Mr. Lincoln or Congress did to 
get money, to get men, or to obtain the moral support of tho 
country and the world — tax laws, tariff laws, greenbacks, gov- 
ernment bonds, army bills, drafts, blockades, proclamations — 
met the indiscriminate and bitter assaults of these men. Tho 
enlistment of colored soldiers, a measure by which between one 
and two hundred thousand able-bodied men were transferred 
from the service of the rebels in corn-fields to the Union servico 
in battle-fields — how Mr. Lincoln and the Union party were vili- 
fied for that wise and necessary measure ! But worse, infinitely 
worse, than mere opposition to war measures, were their efforts 
to impair the confidence of the people, to diminish the moral 
power of the government, to give hope and earnestness to the 
enemies of the Union, by showing that the administration was 
to blame for the war, that it was unnecessary, unjust, and that it 
had been perverted from its original object, and that it could 
not but fail. 

I need not go beyond the record of leaders of the Ohio De- 
mocracy of to-day for proof what I am saying. Mr. Pendleton, 
usually so gentlemanly and prudent in speech, lost his balance 
after the victories of the peace Democracy in 1862. At the Dem- 
ocratic jubilee in Butler county over the elections, Mr. Pendle- 
ton is reported as saying : 

" I came up to see if there were any Butternuts in Butler 
county. I came to see if there were any Copperheads in Butler 
county, as my friends of the Cincinnati Gazette and Commercial 
are fond of terming the Democracy of the country. I came up 
to tell you that there are a good many of that stripe of animals 
in old Hamilton. I have traveled about the country lately, and 
I assure you there is a large crop of Butternuts everywhere : not 
only that, but the quality and character of the nut is quite as 
good as the quantity." 

Of course, Mr. Pendleton was applauded by his audience ; and 
he returned to his place in the House of Representatives at 
Washington prepared to give expression to his views with the 
same plainness and boldness which marked the utterances of 
his colleague, Mr. Vallandigham. 

On the 31st of January, 1863, he made an elaborate speech 
against the enlistment of negroes into the service of the United 
States, in which he said : 



180 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

" T should be false to you, my fellow-representatives, if I did 
not tell you that there is an impression, growing with great ra- 
pidity, upon the minds of the people of the Northwest that they 
have been deliberately deceived into this war — that their patri- 
otism and their love of country have been engaged to call them 
into the army, under the pretense that the war was to be for the 
Union and the Constitution, when, in fact, it was to be an armed 
crusade for tho abolition of slavery. I tell you, sir, that unless 
this impression is speedily arrested it will become universal ; it 
will ripen into conviction, and then it will be beyond your power 
to get from their broad plains another man, or from their almost 
exhausted coffers another dollar." 

In the same speech he says : 

" I said two years ago, on this floor, that armies, money, war 
can not restore this Union; justice, reason, peace, may. I be- 
lieved it then ; I have believed it at every moment since; I be- 
lieve it now. No event of the past two years has for a moment 
shaken my faith. Peace is the first step to Union. Peace 
is Union. Peace unbroken would have preserved it; peace 
restored will, I hope, in some time reconstruct it. The only 
bonds which can hold these States in confederation, the only 
tics which can make us one people, are the soft and silken 
cords of affection and interest. These are woven in peace, not 
war ; in conciliation, not coercion ; in deeds of kindness and acts 
of friendly sympathy, not in deeds of violence and blood. Tho 
people of the Northwest were carried away by tho excitement 
of April and May. They believed war would restore the Union. 
They trusted to the assurances of the president and his cabinet, 
and of Congress, that it should be carried on for that purpose 
alone. They trusted that it would be carried on under the Con- 
stitution. They were patriotic and confiding. They sent their 
sons, and brothers, and husbands to the army, and poured out 
their treasures at the feet of the administration. They feel that 
the war has been perverted from this end ; that the Constitution 
has been disregarded; that abolition and arbitrary power, not 
Union and constitutional liberty, are the governing ideas of the 
administration. They are in no temper to be trifled with. They 
think they have been deceived. There is danger of revolution. 
I hey are longing for peace." 

Need I pause fco inquire who would receive encouragement, or 



APPENDIX. 181 



whose spirits would be depressed, on reading these remarkable 
sentences ? Imagine them read by the rebel camp-fires, or at tho 
firesides of the rebel people. What hope, what exultation we 
should behold in the faces of those who heard them ! On tho 
other hand, at Union camp-fires, or by the loyal fire-sides of tho 
North, what sorrow, what mortification, what depression such 
statements would surely carry wherever they were heard and 
believed! 

The course of the peace Democracy of Ohio during the mem- 
orable contest of 1863, between Brough and Vallandigham, is too 
well known to require attention now. Judge Thurman was ono 
of the committee who constructed the platform of the conven- 
tion which nominated Mr. Vallandigham, and was the ablest 
member of the State Central Committee which had charge of 
the canvass in his behalf during his exile. 

The key-note to that canvass was given by Mr. Vallandigham 
himself in a letter written from Canada, July 15, 1863. That 
letter contained the following : 

" If this civil war is to terminate only by the subjugation or 
submission of the South to force and arms, tho infant of to-day 
will not live to see the end of it. No, in another way only can 
it be brought to a close. Traveling a thousand miles and more, 
through nearly half of the Confederate States, and sojourning 
for a time at widely different points, I met not ono man, woman, 
or child, who was not resolved to perish rather than yield to tho 
pressure of arms, even in the most desperate extremity. And 
whatever may and must be the varying fortune of the war, in 
all which I recognize the hand of Providence pointing visibly to 
the ultimate issue of this great trial of the States and people 
of America, they are better prepared now every way to make 
good their inexorable purpose than at any period since the be- 
ginning of the struggle. These may be unwelcome truths; but 
they are addressed only to candid and honest men." 

The assumption of the certain success of the rebellion, and 
that the war for the Union would assuredly fail, was the strong 
point of these gentlemen in favor of the election of Vallandig- 
ham and the defeat of Brough. Fortunately, the patriotic peo- 
ple saw the situation from another standpoint, and under the 
influence of different feelings and different sympathies. 

In the elections of 1863, the peace Democracy of Ohio and 



182 LIFE OF RUTIIERFORD B. HAYES. 

other States sustained defeats which have no parallel in our po- 
litical history. But, notwithstanding their reverses, the year 
18G4, the year of the presidential election, found the Ohio lead- 
ers possibly sadder, but certainly not wiser nor more patriotic 
than before. 

At the National Convention at Chicago, in August, Mr. Pen- 
dleton was nominated for vice-president, Judge Thurman was a 
delegate of the State of Ohio at large, and Mr. Vallandigham as 
a district delegate, and as a member of the commitete on plat- 
form, was the author of the following resolution adopted by tho 
convention : 

"Resolved, That this convention does explicitly declare, as the 
sense of the American people, that, after four years of failure to 
restore the Union by the experiment of war, during which, 
under pretense of military necessity, or war power higher than 
the constitution, the constitution has been disregarded in every 
part, and public liberty and private rights have been alike trod- 
den down, and the material prosperity of the country essentially 
impaired, justice, humanity, liberty, and the public welfare 
demand that immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hos- 
tilities, with a view to an ultimate convention of all the States, 
or other peaceable means, to the end that at the earliest practi- 
cable moment peace may be restored on the basis of the Fed- 
eral Union of the States." 

This resolution does not seem to require explanation or com- 
ment. But as General McClellan's letter accepting the nomina- 
tion for president did not square well with this part of the party 
platform, Mr. Vallandigham, in a speech at Sidney, Ohio, Sep- 
tember 24, 1S64, explained it at some length. In that speech, 
ho said : 

"I am speaking now of the fact that this convention pro- 
nounced this war a failure, and giving you the reasons why it is 
a failure. . . . What has been gained by this campaign? 
More lives have been lost, more hard fighting has been done, 
more courage has been exhibited by the Federal as well as the 
Southern soldiers than in any former campaign, and what has 
been accomplished ? General Grant is nearer to Richmond, oc- 
cupying a territory of perhaps eleven miles, which was not in 
the possession of the United States when the campaign began 
from City Point to tho suburbs of Petersburg. To secure that 






APPENDIX. 1 83 



he gave up all the country from Manassas down to Richmond and 
a large part of the valley. . . . How about the Southern 
campaign ? General Sherman, through the courage of the best 
disciplined, best organized, and most powerful army that has 
been seen since the campaigns of the first Napoleon, has taken 
Atlanta — a town somewhat larger than Sidney. It has cost him 
sixty thousand men and four or five months of the most terrible 
campaign ever waged on this continent or any other, or any 
other part of the globe. He occupies from two to five miles on 
each side of a railroad of one hundred and thirty-eight miles in 
length. He has penetrated that far into Georgia. What has 
been surrendered to obtain that? All of Texas, nearly all of 
Louisiana, nearly all of Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, and a 
part of Tennessee, which were in possession of the Federals 
on the first of May. Kentucky has been opened to continual 
incursions of the Confederate armies. All this has been surrend- 
ered in order to gain this barren strip of country on the line of 
the railroad. The war, then, has been properly pronounced a 
failure in a military point of view. The convention meant that 
it has failed to restore the Union, and there is not a Republican 
in the land who does not know it." 

In the Sydney speech. Mr. Vallandigham says, also : 
" What will you have now ? Four years more of war ? What 
guaranties of success have you ? Do you want two million more 
of men to go forth to this war as the Crusaders went to the sepul- 
cher at Jerusalem? The beginning of this administration 
found us with very little debt, comparatively no taxation, and 
peace and happiness among the States ; and now look at the 
scene ! Four more years of war, do you tell me, when the first 
four, with every advantage, has failed ? Now, too, that the hearts 
of one-half of the people are turned away from war, and intent 
upon the arts of peace ? What will be the consequence ? Four 
thousand millions more of debt, five hundred millions more of 
taxation, more conscriptions, more calls for five hundred thou- 
sand men, more sacrifices for the next four years. All this is 
what Abraham Lincoln demands of you in order that the South 
may be compelled not to return to the Union, but to abandon 
slavery." 

All this logic, this eloquence, this taxing the imagination to 
portray the horrors of war, failed to deceive the people; Lincoln 



184 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. II AYES. 

was re-elected ; the war went on, and a few short months wit- 
nessed the end of the armed rebellion, and the triumph of lib- 
erty and of Union. 

Now came the work of reconstruction. The leaders of the 
Peace Democracy, who had failed in every measure, in every 
plan, in every opinion, and in every prediction relating to the 
war, were promptly on hand, and with unblushing cheek were 
prepared to take exclusive charge of the whole business of re- 
organization and reconstruction. They had a plan all prepared 
— a plan easily understood, easily executed, and which they 
averred would be satisfactory to all parties. Their plan was in 
perfect harmony with the conduct and history of its authors 
and friends during the war. They had been in very close sym- 
pathy with the men engaged in the rebellion, while their sym- 
pathy for loyal white people at the South was not strong, and 
they were bitterly hostile to loyal colored people both North 
and South. Their plan was consistent with all this. 

According to it, the rebels were to be treated in the same 
manner as if they had remained loyal. All laws, State and Na- 
tional, all orders and regulations of the military, naval, and 
other departments of the government, creating disabilities on 
account of participation in the rebellion, were to be repealed, 
revoked, or abolished. Tho rebellious States were to be repre- 
sented in Congress by the rebels without hindrance from any 
test oath. All appointments in tho army, in the navy, and in 
tho civil service, were to be made from men who were rebels, 
on the same terms as from men who were loyal. The people 
and governments in the rebellious States were to be subjected to 
no other interference or control from the military or other de- 
partments of the general government than exists in the States 
which remained loyal. Loyal white men and loyal colored men 
were to be protected alone in those States by State laws, executed 
by State authorities, as if they were in the loyal States. 

There were to be no amendments to tho constitution, not even 
an amendment abolishing slavery. In short, the great rebellion 
was to bo ignored or forgotten, or, in the words of one of their 
orators, "to be generously forgiven." The war, whose burdens, 
cost, and carnage they had been so fond of exaggerating, sud- 
denly sank into what the Rev. Petroleum V. Nasby calls "the 
late unpleasantness," for which nobody but the abolitionists 



APPENDIX. 185 



were to blame. Under this plan the States could soon re-estab- 
lish slavery where it had been disturbed by the war. Jefferson 
Davis, Toombs, Slidell, and Mason could be reelected to their 
old places in the Senate of the United States ; Lee could be re- 
appointed in the army, and Semmes and Maury could be restored 
to the navy. Of course this plan of the Peace Democracy was 
acceptable to the rebels of the South. 

But the loyal people, who under the name of the Union party 
fought successfully through the war of the rebellion, objected to 
this plan as wrong in principle, wrong in its details, and fatally 
wrong as an example for the future. It treats treason as no 
crime and loyalty as no virtue ; it contains no guarantees, irre- 
versible or otherwise, against another rebellion by the same par- 
ties and on the same grounds. It restores to political honor and 
power in the government of the Nation men who have spent the 
best part of their lives in plotting the overthrow of that govern- 
ment, and who for more than four years levied public war against 
the United States; it allows Union men in the South, who have 
risked all — and many of whom have lost all but life in uphold- 
ing the Union cause — to be excluded from every office, State and 
National, and in many instances to be banished from the States 
they so faithfully labored to save; it abandons the four millions 
of colored people to such treatment as the ruffian class of tho 
South, educated in the barbarism of slavery and the atrocities 
of the rebellion, may choose to give them; it leaves the obliga- 
tions of the Nation to her creditors and to the maimed soldiers 
and to the widows and orphans of the war, to be fulfilled by men 
who hate the cause in which those obligations were incurred ; 
it claims to be a plan which restores the Union without requir- 
ing conditions ; but, in conceding to the conquered rebels the 
repeal of laws important to the Nation's welfare, it grants con- 
ditions which they demand, while it denies to the loyal victors 
conditions which they deem of priceless value. 

In the meantime, President Johnson having declared that 
" the rebellion, in its revolutionary progress, had deprived the 
people of the rebel States of all civil government," proceeded by 
military power to set up provisional State governments in those 
States, and to require them to declare void all ordinances of se- 
cession, to repudiate the rebel debt, and to adopt the thirteenth 
amendment of the constitution, proposed by the Union party, 



186 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. IIAYES. 



abolishing slavery throughout the United States. The Peace 
Democracy opposed all conditions, and, instinctively unsound 
upon human rights, opposed the amendment abolishing slavery. 
The elections of 1865 settled that question against them, and de- 
prived them of New Jersey, the last free State which adhered to 
their fallen fortunes. 

At the session of Congress of 1865-66, the president, finding 
that his co-called State governments in the rebel States — created 
by military power alone and without the sanction of the legis- 
lative power of the government — had accepted his conditions ; 
insisted that those States were fully restored to their former 
proper relations with the general government, and that they 
were again entitled to representation in the same manner with 
the loyal States. This plan accorded with the wishes of all un- 
repentant rebels, and as a matter of course received the support 
of their allies of the Peace Democracy. 

The Union party, at the sacrifice of all of the power and pa- 
tronage of the administration they had elected, firmly opposed 
and finally defeated this project. They required, before tho 
complete restoration of the rebel States, that the fourteenth 
amendment of the constitution should be adopted, which was 
framed to secure civil rights to the colored people, equal repre- 
sentation between the free States and the former slave States, 
the disqualification for office of leading rebels, the payment of 
the loyal obligations to creditors, to maimed soldiers, and to 
widows and orphans, and the repudiation of the rebel debt, and 
of claims to payment for slaves. On the adoption of this amend- 
ment turned the elections of 1866. After the amplest debates 
before the people the Union party carried the country in favor 
of the amendment, electing more than three-fourths of the 
members of the House of Representatives. They also secured 
the adoption of the amendment in twenty-one out of the twenty- 
four States now represented, which have acted upon it by an 
average vote in the State legislature of more than four to one. 

In striking contrast with this was the action of the rebel 
States. Tennessee alone ratified the amendment. The other 
ten promptly and defiantly rejected it by an average majority in 
their State legislatures of more than fifty to one.- When, there- 
fore, the Thirty-ninth Congress met in the session of 1866-67 



APPENDIX. 187 



they found the work of reconstruction in those ten States still 
unaccomplished. 

Now, in what condition were those ten rebel States ? In the 
first place all political power in those States was in tho hands of 
rebels, and for the most part of leading and unrepentant rebels. 
Their governors, their members of legislature, their judges, 
their county and city officers, and their members of Congress, 
with rare exceptions, were rebels. Such was their political con- 
dition. 

What was their condition with respect to the preservation of 
order, the suppression of crime, and tho redress of private 
grievances? After the suppression of the rebellion the next 
plain duty of the National government was to see that the lives, 
liberty, and property of all classes of citizens were secure, and 
especially to see that the loyal white and colored citizens who 
resided or might sojourn in those States did not suffer injustice, 
oppression, or outrage because of their loyalty. Loyal men, 
without distinction of race or color, were clearly entitled to 
the full measure of protection usually found in civilized coun- 
tries, if in the nature of things it was possible for the Nation to 
furnish it. 

Inquiring as to the condition of things in the South, I waive 
the uniform current of information derived from the press and 
other unofficial sources from all parts of the South, and rely ex- 
clusively on the official reports of army officers like Grant, 
Thomas, Sheridan, and Howard — officers of clear heads, of 
strong sense, and of spotless integrity, whose business it is to 
know the facts, and who all united in warning the Nation that 
Union men, either white or colored, were not safe in the South. 

General Grant says that the class at the South who "will ac- 
knowledge no law but force" is sufficiently formidable to justify 
the military occupation of that territory. 

General Sheridan, in an official report, says tho " trial of a 
white man for the murder of a freedman in Texas would be a 
farce ; and, in making this statement, I make it because truth 
compels me, and for no other reason. . . . Over the killing 
of many freedmen nothing is done." General Sheridan cites 
cases in which our National soldiers wearing the uniform of the 
Republic have been deliberately shot " without provocation " by 
citizens, and the grand jury refused to find a bill against the 



188 LIFE OP RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

murderers. Even in Virginia, General Schofield was compelled 
to resort to a military tribunal because " a gentleman" who shot 
a negro dead in cold blood " was instantly acquitted by one of 
the civil courts." 

General Ord reports in Arkansas fifty-two murders of freed 
persons by white men in the past three or four months, and no 
reports have been received that the murderers have been imprisoned or 
punished. . . . The number of murders reported is not half 
the number committed." 

General Sickles says that in South Carolina, " in certain coun- 
ties, such as Newberry, Edgecombe, and Laurens, so much coun- 
tenance was given to outrages on freedmen by the indifference 
of the civil authorities and by the population, who made them- 
selves accomplices in the crimes, that other measures became 
necessary." 

In Mississippi, General Thomas calls attention to the legisla- 
tion in regard to colored people. " It is oppressive, unjust, and 
unconstitutional." The laws as to buying real estate, bearing 
arms, making contracts, and the like, are of such a character 
" that the constitutional gift of freedom is not much more than 
a name." 

General Sheridan, speaking of Louisiana, says : " Homicides 
are frequent in some localities. Sometimes they are investi- 
gated by a coroner's jury, which justifies the act and releases 
the perpetrator ; in other cases, . . . the parties are held to 
bail in a nominal sum ; but the trial of a white man for the kill- 
ing of a freedman can, in the existing state of society in this 
State, be nothing more or less than a farce." 

(Jeneral Thomas, in February last, in relation to the display of 
the rebel flag in home, Georgia, said : " The sole cause of this and 
similar offenses lies in the fact that certain citizens of Home, 
and a portion of the people of the States lately in rebellion, do 
not and have not accepted the situation, and that is that the late 
civil war was a rebellion, and history will so record it. . . . 
Everywhere in the States lately in rebellion treason is respecta- 
ble and loyalty odious. This the people of the United States 
who ended the rebellion and saved the country will not permit; 
and all attempts to maintain this unnatural order of things will 
be met by decided disapproval." 

Upon theso official reports, showing not merely that atrocious 



APPENDIX. 189 



crimes were everywhere committed against loyal people, but 
that the civil authorities did not even attempt to prevent them 
by the punishment of the perpetrators, it became the plain duty 
of Congress to adopt measures " to enforce peace and good order 
in the rebel States, until loyal and Republican State govern- 
ments could be legally established." Ilow well this duty was 
performed will appear from a brief examination of the recon- 
struction acts which were passed by Congress in March last, and 
by the auspicious results which followed their adoption and exe- 
cution. 

By these acts, the ten rebel States were divided into five mili- 
tary districts, subject to the military authority of the United 
States; and it was made the duty of the president to assign 
military officers, not below the rank of brigadier-general, to com- 
mand each of said districts, and to detail a sufficient military 
force to enable such officers to perform their duties. The duties 
of military commanders were defined as follows, in the 3d sec- 
tion of the act : 

" Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of 
each officer assigned as aforesaid, to protect all persons in their 
rights of person and property, to suppress insurrection, disorder, 
and violence, and to punish, or cause to be punished, all dis- 
turbers of the public peace and criminals ; and to this end he 
may allow local civil tribunals to take jurisdiction of and to try 
offenders; or when, in his judgment, it may be necessary for the 
trial of offenders, he shall have power to organize military com- 
missions or tribunals for that purpose; and all interference, 
under color of State authority, with the exercise of military au- 
thority under this act shall be null and void." 

The act also sets forth the manner in which the people of any 
one of the rebel States could form a State constitution, and the 
terms on which the State would be fully restored to proper rela- 
tions with the Union. The most important provisions are those 
relating to the qualifications of voters, and the one requiring 
the adoption of the amendment to the constitution proposed by 
the Thirty-ninth Congress, known as article fourteen. The right 
of suffrage is given to all men of suitable age and residence, 
without distinction of race or color, except a limited number 
who are excluded for participation in the rebellion. 

In pursuance of these acts, the district of Louisiana and Texas 



100 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. II AYES. 

was placed under the command of General Sheridan; Arkansas 
and Mississippi under General Ord; Alabama, Georgia, and 
Florida under General Pope; North Carolina and South Carolina 
under General Sickles; and Virginia under General Schoheld. 
The merits of this plan are obvious. 

1. It places the rebels again under the control of the power 
which conquered them, and of the very officers to whom they 
surrendered. 

2. It is well calculated to afford protection to all loyal people, 
white or colored, against those who would oppress or injure them 
on account of their loyalty. 

3. It places the new State governments of the South upon the 
solid basis of justice and equal rights. 

This plan received in Congress the support of many members 
of Congress who did not uniformly vote with the Union party, 
and was acceptable to some of its most distinguished adversa- 
ries. In the Senate, Reverdy Johnson, a Mai-yland Democrat, 
voted for it, and made effective speeches in its support. The 
loyal press of the North, without exception, upheld it. 

In the South, its success was everywhere gratifying and unex- 
ampled. Its enemies had said that it would organize anarchy in 
the rebel States — that it woidd immediately inaugurate a war of 
races between whites and blacks — and compared the condition 
of the South under it to the condition of India under English 
oppression, and to Hungary under the despotism of Austria. 

But the course of the public press, and the conduct, the let- 
ters, and speeches of public men in the rebel States, vindicated 
the wisdom and justice of the measure. I will quote only from 
rebel sources. 

In Virginia, the Charlottesville Chronicle addressed its readers 
as follows : 

" For White Folks and Colored Folks. — Every colored person 
may now go where and when he pleases. He is a free man and 
a full citizen. This is not all; by another bound they have be- 
come voters. They will take part in the government of the- 
country. No people was ever so suddenly, so rapidly lifted up. 

" Shall we all live happily together, or shall we hate each other, 
and quarrel and bear malice? 

" Let us all try and got on together. The land is big enough. 
Lot the whites accommodate themselves to the new state of 






APPENDIX. 191 



things. Let them be polite and kind to all, and be always ready 
to accord to every man, whether white or colored, his full rights. 
We make bold to say that the behavior of the colored people of 
this State, since they were set free, has surprised all fair-minded 
white people. We do not believe the white people, under tho 
same circumstances, would have behaved so well by twenty per 
cent. They have shown the greatest moderation. They have 
passed from plantation hands to freedom and the ballot without 
outward excitement." 

The Eichmond Examiner, the organ of the fire-eaters, says of 
the colored people: 

" This class of our population, as a general thing, manifest a 
disposition to prepare themselves for the altered political condi- 
tion in which the events of the past two years have placed them. 
The sudden abolition of slavery did not, as most persons ex- 
pected, turn their heads. They have been, in the main, orderly 
and well behaved. They have not presumed upon their newly- 
acquired freedom to commit breaches of the peace or to be guilty 
of any acts calculated to sow dissension between the two races. 
The utmost good feeling is felt by the white people of this city 
toward the negroes. There is not one particle of bitterness felt 
for them." 

In South Carolina, Wade Hampton addressed a mixed assem- 
bly of whites and colored people at Columbia, in which he quoted 
from a former speech to his old soldiers : 

"There is one other point on which there should be no mis- 
understanding as to our position — no loop on which to hang a 
possible misconstruction as to our views — and that is the aboli- 
tion of slavery. The deed has been done, and I, for one, do 
honestly declare that I never wish to see it revoked. Nor do I 
believe that the people of the South would now remand the 
negro to slavery, if they had the power to do so unquestioned. 

" Under our paternal care, from a mere handful, he grew to be 
a mighty host. He came to us a heathen; we made him a 
Christian. Idle, vicious, savage in his own country, in ours he 
became industrious, gentle, civilized. As a slave, he was faithful 
to us ; as a freeman, let us treat him as a friend. Deal with him 
frankly, justly, kindly, and, my word for it, he will reciprocate 
your kindness. If you wish so see him contented, industrious, 
useful, aid him in his efforts to elevate himself in tho scale of 



192 LIFE OP RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

civilization, and thus fit him not only to enjoy the blessings of 
freedom, but to appreciate his duties." 

After stating the provisions of the " military bill," as he calls 
the reconstruction law, he said to the colored people: 

"But suppose the bill is pronounced unconstitutional; how 
then? I tell you what I am willing to see done. I am willing 
to give the right of suffrage to all who can read and who pay a 
certain amount of taxes ; and I agree that this qualification shall 
bear on white and black alike. You would have no right to 
complain of a law which would put you on a perfect political 
equality with the whites, and which would put within your reach 
and that of your children the privilege enjoyed by any class of 
citizens." 

In Georgia, the prevailing sentiment is indicated by the fol- 
lowing. The Atlanta New Era says : 

" We freely accept the Sherman platform as the only means 
whereby to rescue the country from total destruction, and if we 
mistake not, our backbone will prove sufficiently strong to ena- 
ble us to look the issue full in the face, without a shudder. It 
is our bounden duty, and that of every other patriot and well- 
wisher of the South, to at once signify an unconditional accep- 
tance of the measures perfected by Congress for our restoration 
to the Union, and heartily co-operate with the United States au- 
thorities in securing that most desirable end." 

The Augusta Press, alluding to the recent meeting of negroes 
at Columbia, S. C, and the fact that speeches were made by Gen- 
eral Wade Hampton and others, states that — 

"All good citizens all over the South entertain precisely the 
same kind feelings for the colored people that were exhibited 
by these eminent Carolinians, and it is unfortunate that these 
sentiments are not more widely manifested in meetings for pub- 
lic counsel with them. ' Representative men* in every commu- 
nity should be prompt and earnest in signifying their wish to 
co-operate with the colored people in the administration of the 
laws and the preservation of harmony and good will. To this 
end, we deem it our duty to urge that in every community pub- 
lic meetings be held, in which the two races may take friendly 
counsel together." 

In Florida, Hon. R. S. Mallory, a former Democratic United 



APPENDIX. 193 



States Senator, is reported to have said, at a large meeting com- 
posed of whites and blacks, in Pensacola, that — 

" The recent legislation of Congress ought to be submitted to 
in good faith; that, as the negro was now entitled to vote, it was 
the interest of the State that ho should be educated and en- 
lightened, and made to comprehend the priceless value of the 
ballot, and the importance to himself and to the State of its ju- 
dicious use. 

" Let us fully and frankly acknowledge, as well by deeds as by 
words, their equality with us, before the law, and regard it as 
no less just to ourselves and them than to our State and her 
best interests to aid in their education, elevation, and enjoyment 
of all the rights which follow their new condition." 

Governor Patton, of Alabama, says: 

" It seems to me that it is the true feeling of the Southern 
people to contribute their best influence in favor of an early or- 
ganization of their respective States, in accordance with the re- 
quirements of the recent reconstruction act. Congress claims 
the right to control this whole question. In my humble judg- 
ment, it is unwise to contend longer against its power, or to strug- 
gle further against its repeatedly expressed will. 

"The freedmen are now to vote the first time. We should 
cherish against them no ill-feeling. The elective franchise is 
conferred upon them ; let them exercise it freely, and in their 
own way. No effort should be made to control their votes, ex- 
cept such as may tend to enable them to vote intelligently, and 
such as may be necessary to protect them against mischievous in- 
fluences to which, from their want of intelligence, they may pos- 
sibly be subjected. Above all things, we should discourage every- 
thing which may tend to generate antagonism between white 
and colored voters. ?! 

In Mississippi, Albert G. Brown, a former Democratic United 
States Senator, and a rebel, says : 

" To those who think it most becoming men in my situation to 
keep quiet, 1 am free to say ' that is very much my own opinion.' 

"As I speak reluctantly, you will not be surprised if I say as 
little as possible. 

u The negro is a fixture in this country. He is not going out of 



194 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

it ; he is not going to die out, and he is not going to be driven out. 
Nor is his exodus from the country desirable. I am frank in 
Baying if they, every one of them, could be packed in a balloon, 
carried over the water, and emptied into Africa, I would not 
have it done, unless, indeed, it were already arranged that the 
balloon should return by the way of Germany, Ireland, Scotland, 
etc., and bring us a return cargo of white laborers. If the negro 
is to stay here, and it is desirable to have him do so, what is the 
duty of the intelligent white man toward him? Why, to edu- 
cate him, admit him, when sufficiently instructed, to the right 
of voting, and as rapidly as possible prepare him for a safe and 
rational enjoyment of that ' equality before the law ' which, as a 
free man, he has a right to claim, and which we can not long re- 
fuse to give." 

The Mississippi Index says : 

"There are some laws on our statute-book respecting negroes 
that are of no paactical use, and will have to be done away with 
some day. The sooner we dispense with them the better. But 
in the matter of educating the negro we can accomplish more 
toward convincing the people of the North that we have been 
misrepresented and slandered than by legislative action. Let 
us take the work of education out of the hands of the Yankees 
among us. We can do this by encouraging the establishment 
of negro schools and placing them in the charge of men and 
women whom we know to be competent and trustworthy." 

In Louisiana, General Longstreet, one of the most distin- 
guished of the rebel Generals, says : 

" The striking feature, and the one that our people should 
keep in view, is, that we are a conquered people. Eecognizing 
this fact fairly and squarely, there is but one course left for wise 
men to pursue — accept the terms that are offered us by the con- 
querors. There can be no discredit to a conquered people for 
accepting the conditions offered by their conquerors. Nor is 
that any occasion for a feeling of humiliation. We have made 
an honest, and I hope that I may say, a creditable fight, but wo 
have lost. Let us come forward, then, and accept the ends 
involved in the struggle. 

" Our people earnestly desire that the constitutional govern- 
ment shall be re-established, and the only means to accomplish 



APPENDIX. 1 95 



this is to comply with the requirements of the recent Congress 
sior.al legislation. 

" The military bill and amendments are peace offerings. "We 
should accept them as such, and place ourselves upon them as 
the starting-point from which to meet future political issues as 
they arise. 

" Like other Southern men, T naturally sought alliance with 
the Democratic party, merely because it was opposed to the Re- 
publican party. But, as far as I can judge, there is nothing tan- 
gible about it, except the issues that were staked upon the war 
and lost. Finding nothing to take hold of except prejudice, 
which can not be worked into good for any one, it is proper and 
right that I should seek some standpoint from which good may 
be done." 

Quotations like these from prominent Democratic politicians, 
from rebel soldiers, and from influential rebel newspapers, might 
be multiplied indefinitely. Enough have been given to show 
how completely and how exactly the Reconstruction Acts have 
met the evil to be remedied in the South. My friend, Mr. Has- 
saurek, in his admirable speech at Columbus, did not estimate 
too highly the fruits of these measures. Said he: 
■ "And, sir, this remedy at once effected the desired cure. The 
poor contraband is no longer the persecuted outlaw whom in- 
curable rebels might kick and kill with impunity; but he at 
once became ' our colored fellow-citizen,' in whose well being his 
former master takes the liveliest interest. Thus, by bringing 
the negro under the American system, we have completed his 
emancipation. lie has ceased to be a pariah. From an outcast 
he has been transformed into a human being, invested with the 
great National attribute of self-protection, and the re-establish- 
ment of peace, and order, and security, the revival of business 
and trade, and the restoration of the Southern States on the 
basis of loyalty and equal justice to all, will be the happy results 
of this astonishing metamorphosis, pi'ovided the party which has 
inaugurated this policy remains in power to carry it out." 

The Peace Democracy generally throughout the North oppose 
this measure. In Ohio they oppose it especially because it com- 
mits the people of the Nation in favor of manhood suffrage. 
They tell us that if it is wise and just to entrust the ballot to 



10(3 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

colored men in the District of Columbia, in the Territories, and 
in the rebel States, it is also just and wise that they should havo 
it in Ohio and in the other States of the North. 

Union men do not question this reasoning, but if it is urged 
as an objection to the plan of Congress, we reply : There are now 
within the limits of the United States about five millions of col- 
ored people. They are not aliens or strangers. They are here 
not by the choice of themselves or of their ancestors. They are 
here by the misfortune of their fathers and the crime of ours. 
Their labor, privations, and sufferings, unpaid and unrequited, 
have cleared and redeemed one-third of the inhabited territory 
of the Union. Their toil has added to the resources and wealth 
of the nation untold millions. Whether we prefer it or not, 
they are our countrymen, and will remain so forever. 

They are more than countrymen — they are citizens. Free col- 
ored people were citizens of the colonies. The Constitution of 
the United States, formed by our fathers, created no disabilities 
on account of color. By the acts of our fathers and of ourselves, 
they bear equally the burdens and are required to discharge tho 
highest duties of citizens. They are compelled to pay taxes and 
to bear arms. They fought side by side with their white coun- 
trymen in the great struggle for independence, and in the recent 
war for the Union. In the revolutionary contest, colored men 
bore an honorable part, from the Boston massacre, in 1770, to 
the surrender of Cornwallis, in 1781. Bancroft says: "Their 
names may be read on the pension rolls of the country side by 
side with those of other soldiers of the revolution." In the war 
of 1812 General Jackson issued an order complimenting the col- 
ored men of his army engaged in the defense of New Orleans. 
I need not speak of their number or of their services in the war 
of the rebellion. The Nation enrolled and accepted them among 
her defendants to the number of about two hundred thousand, 
and in tho new regular army act, passed at the close of the re- 
bellion, by the votes of Democrats and Union men alike, in the 
Senate and in tho House, and by the assent of the president, 
regiments of colored men, cavalry and infantry, form part of the 
Btanding army of the Republic. 

In the navy, colored American sailors have fought side by side 
with white men from the days of Paul Jones to the victory of 
the Kearsarge over the rebel pirate Alabama. Colored men will, 



APPENDIX. 197 



in the future as in the past, in all times of National peril, be our 
fellow-soklicrs. Tax-payers, countrymen, fellow-citizens, and 
fellow-soldiers, tho colored men of America have been and will 
be. It is now too late for the adversaries of nationality and hu- 
man rights to undertake to deprivo these tax-payers, freemen, 
citizens, and soldiers of the right to vote. 

Slaves were never voters. It was bad enough that our fathers, 
for the sake of Union, were compelled to allow masters to reckon 
three-fifths of their slaves for representation, without adding 
slave suffrage to the other privileges of tho slaveholder. But 
free colored men were always voters in many of the Colonies, 
and in several of the States, North and South, after independ- 
ence was achieved. They voted for members of the Congress 
which declared independence, and for members of every Con- 
gress prior to the adoption of the Federal Constitution; for the 
members of tho convention which framed the Constitution; for 
the members of many of the State conventions which ratified 
it, and for every president from Washington to Lincoln. 

Our government has been called the white man's government. 
Not so. It is not the government of any class, or sect, or nation- 
ality, or race. It is a government founded on the consent of the 
governed, and Mr. Broomall, of Pennsylvania, therefore prop- 
erly calls it " the government of the governed." It is not the 
government of the native born, or of the foreign born, of the 
rich man, or of the poor man, of the white man, or of the col- 
ored man — it is the government of the freeman. And when 
colored men were made citizens, soldiers, and freemen, by our 
consent and votes, we were estopped from denying to them the 
right of suffrage. 

General Sherman was right when he said, in his Atlanta letter, 
of 1864: " If you admit the negro to this struggle for any pur- 
pose, he has a right to stay in for all ; and, when the fight is 
over, the hand that drops the musket can not be denied the 
ballot." 

Even our adversaries are compelled to admit the Jeffersonian 
rule, that " the man who pays taxes and who fights for the coun- 
try is entitled to vote." 

Mr. Pendleton, in his speech against the enlistment of colored 
soldiers, gave up the whole controversy. He said : " Gentlemen 
tell us that these colored men are ready, with their strong arms 



198 LIFE OP RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

and their brave hearts, to maintain the supremacy of the Con- i 
stitution, and to defend the integrity of the Union, which in our 
hands to-day is in peril. What is that Constitution? It pro- 
vides that every child of the Republic, every citizen of the land 
is before the law the equal of every other. It provides for all 
of them trial by jury, free speech, free press, entire protection for 
life and liberty and property. It goes further. It secures to every 
citizen the right of suffrage, the right to hold office, the right to 
aspire to every office or agency by which the government is car- 
ried on. Every man called upon to do military duty, every man 
required to take up arms in its defense, is by its provisions en- 
titled to vote, and a competent aspirant for every office in the 
government." 

The truth is, impartial manhood suffrage is already practically 
decided. It is now merely a question of time. In the eleven 
rebel States, in five of the New England States, and in a num- 
ber of the Northwestern States, there is no organized party able 
to successfully oppose impartial suffrage. The Democratic party 
of more than half of the States are ready to concede its justice 
and expediency. The Boston Post, the able organ of the New 
England Democracy, says : 

"Color ought to have no more to do with the matter (voting) 
than size. Only establish a right standard, and then apply it im- 
partially. A rule of that sort is too firmly fixed in justice and 
equality to be shaken. It commends itself too clearly to the 
good sentiment of the entire body of our countrymen to be suc- 
cessfully traversed by objections. Once let this principle be 
fairly presented to the people of the several States, with the 
knowledge on their part that they alone are to have the dis- 
posal and settlement of it, and we sincerely believe it would not 
be long before it would be adopted by every State in the Union." 

The New York World, the ablest Democratic newspaper in the 
Union, says : 

"Democrats in the North, as well as the South, should be fully 
alive to the importance of the new-element thrust into the poli- 
tics of the country. We suppose it to be morally certain that 
the new constitution of the State of New York, to be framed 
this year, will confer the elective franchise upon all adult male 
negroes. We have no faith in the success of any efforts to shut 
the negro element out of politics. It is the part of wisdom 






APPENDIX. 199 



frankly to accept the situation, and get beforehand with tho 
Radicals in gaining an ascendancy over the negro mind." 

The Chicago Times, the influential organ of the Northwestern 
Democracy, says : 

" The word ' white ' is not found in any of the original consti- 
tutions, save only that of South Carolina. In every other State 
negroes, who possessed- the qualifications that were required im- 
partially of all men, were admitted to vote, and many of that 
race did vote, in the Southern as well as in the Northern States. 
And, moreover, they voted the Democratic ticket, for it was tho 
Democratic party of that day which affirmed their right in that 
respect upon an impartial basis with white men. All Democrats 
can not, even at this day, have forgotten the statement of Gen- 
eral Jackson, that he was supported for the presidency by negro 
voters in the State of Tennessee. 

"The doctrine of impartial suffrage is one of the earliest and 
most essential doctrines of Democracy. It is the affirmation of 
the right of every man who is made a partaker of the burdens 
of the State to be represented by his own consent or vote in its 
government. It is the first principle upon which all true repub- 
lican government rests. It is the basis upon which the liberties 
of America will be preserved, if they are preserved at all. Tho 
Democratic party must return from its driftings, and stand again 
upon the immutable rock of principles." 

In Ohio the leaders of the Peace Democracy intend to carry 
on one more campaign on the old and rotten platform of preju- 
dice against colored people. They seek in this way to divert at- 
tention from the record they made during the war of the rebel- 
lion. But the great facts of our recent history are against them. 
The principles of the fathers, reason, religion, and the spirit of 
the age are against them. 

The plain and monstrous inconsistency and injustice of ex- 
cluding one-seventh of our population from all participation in 
a government founded on the consent of the governed in this 
land of free discussion is simply impossible. No such absurdity 
and wrong can be permanent. Impartial suffrage will carry the 
day. No low prejudice will long be able to induce American 
citizens to deny to a weak people their best means of self-pro- 
tection for the unmanly reason that they are weak. Chief Jus- 
tice Chase expressed the true sentiment when he said " the 



200 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 



American Nation can not afford to do the smallest injustice to 
the humblest and feeblest of her children." 

Much has been said of the antagonism which exists between 
the different races of men. But difference of religion, difference 
of nationality, difference of language, and difference of rank and 
privileges are quite as fruitful causes of antagonism and war as 
difference of race. The bitter strifes between Christians and 
Jews, between Catholics and Protestants, between Englishmen 
and Irishmen, between aristocracy and the masses are only too 
familiar. What causes increase and aggravate these antago- 
nisms, and what are the measures which diminish and prevent 
them, ought to be equally familiar. Under the partial and un- 
just laws of the Nations of the Old World men of one nation- 
ality were allowed to oppress those of another; men of one 
faith had rights which were denied to men of a different faith ; 
men of one rank or caste enjoyed special privileges which were 
not granted to men of another. Under these systems peace was 
impossible and strife perpetual. But under just and equal laws 
in the United States, Jews, Protestants, and Catholics, English- 
men and Irishmen, the former aristocrat and the masses of the 
people, dwell and mingle harmoniously together. The uniform 
lesson of history is that unjust and partial laws increase and 
create antagonism, while justice and equality are the sure foun- 
dation of prospei'ity and peace. 

Impartial suffrage secures also popular education. Nothing 
has given the careful observer of events in the South more grat- 
ification than the progress which is there going on in the estab- 
lishment of schools. The colored people, who as slaves were de- 
barred from education, regard the right to learn as one of the 
highest privileges of freemen. The ballot gives them the power 
t<> secure that privilege. All parties and all public men in the 
South agree that, if colored men vote, ample provision must be 
made in the reorganization of every State for free schools. The 
ignorance of the masses, whites as well as blacks, is one of the 
most discouraging features of Southern society. If Congress- 
ional reconstruction succeeds, there will be free schools for all. 
The colored people will see that their children attend them. 
We need indulge in no fears that the white people will be left 
behind. Impartial suffrage, then, means popular intelligence; 
it means progress; it means loyalty ; it means harmony between 






APPENDIX. 201 



the North and the South, and between the whites and the col- 
ored people. 

The Union party believes that the general welfare requires 
that measures should be adopted which will work great changes 
in the South. Our adversaries are. accustomed to talk of the re- 
bellion as an affair which began when the rebels attacked Fort 
Sumter in 1801, and which ended when Lee surrendered to 
Grant in 1865. It is true that the attempt by force of arms to 
destroy the United States began and ended during the adminis- 
tration of Mr. Lincoln. But the causes, the principles, and the 
motives which produced the rebellion are of an older date than 
the generation which suffered from the fruit they bore, and their 
influence and power are likely to last long after that generation 
passes away. Ever since armed rebellion failed, a large party in 
the South have struggled to make participation in the rebellion 
honorable and loyalty to the Union dishonorable. The lost 
cause with them is the honored cause. In society, in business, 
and in politics, devotion to treason is the test of merit, the pass- 
port to preferment. They wish to return to the old state of 
things — an oligarchy of race and the sovereignty of States. 

To defeat this purpose, to secure the rights of man, and to 
perpetuate the National Union, are the objects of the Congress- 
ional plan of reconstruction. That plan has the hearty support 
of the great generals (so far as their opinions arc known) — of 
Grant, of Thomas, of Sheridan, of Howard — who led the atomics 
of the Union which conquered the rebellion. The statesmen 
most trusted by Mr. Lincoln and by the loyal people of the 
country during the war also support it. The Supreme Court of 
the United States, upon formal application and after solemn ar- 
gument, refuse to interfere with its execution. The loyal press 
of the country, which did so much in the time of need to up- 
hold the patriot cause, without exception, are in favor of the 
plan. 

In the South, as we have seen, the lessons of the war and the 
events occurring since the war have made converts of thousands 
of the bravest and of the ablest of those who opposed the Na- 
tional cause. General Longstreet, a soldier second to no living 
corps commander of the rebel army, calls it "a peace offering," 
and advises the South in good faith to organize under it. Unre- 
pentant rebels and unconverted Peace Democrats oppose it, just 



202 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. IIAYES. 

as they opposed the measures which destroyed slavery and saved 
the nation. 

Opposition to whatever the Nation approves seems to be tho 
policy of the representative men of the Peace Democracy. De- 
feat and failure comprise their whole political history. In 
laboring to overthrow reconstruction they are probably destined 
to further defeat and further failure. I know not how it may 
be in other States, but if I am not greatly mistaken as to the 
mind of the loyal people of Ohio, they mean to trust power in 
the hands of no man who, during the awful struggle for the Na- 
tion's life, proved unfaithful to the cause of liberty and of 
Union. They will continue to exclude from the administration 
of the government those who prominently opposed the war, 
until every question arising out of the rebellion relating to the 
integrity of the Nation and to human rights shall have been 
firmly settled on the basis of impartial justice. 

They mean that the State of Ohio, in this great progress, 
"whose leading object is to elevate the condition of men, to lift 
artificial weights from all shoulders, to clear the paths of lauda- 
ble pursuits for all, to afford all an unfettered start and a fair 
chance in the race of life," shall tread no step backward. 

Penetrated and sustained by a conviction that in this contest 
the Union party of Ohio is doing battle for the right, I enter 
upon my part of the labors of the canvass with undoubting con- 
fidence that the goodness of the cause will supply the weakness 
of its advocates, and command in the result that triumphant 
success which I believe it deserves. 



Speech of General R. B. Hayes, delivered at Sidney, 
Ohio, Wednesday, September 4, 1867. 

Mr. Presich nt and Fellow-Citizens: 

It was very plain at the beginning of the pending canvas in 
Ohio that the leading speakers of the peace party of the State 
were desirous to persuade the people that at this election they 
were to pass upon different issue's from those which have been 



APPENDIX. 203 



considered in former elections. They undertook at the begin- 
ning, generally, to discuss questions which have not heretofore 
been much considered. They told the people that the old issues 
were settled, and that in this canvass in particular, there would 
be no propriety in discussing the record made by men during 
the war; that the war was over; that by-gones ought to be per- 
mitted to be by-gones; and they started a considerable number 
of subjects for discussion, which I claim are either unimportant 
matters, or are matters which are in no sense party questions. 
For example, Judge Eanney, in a very elaborate speech at Mans- 
field, of great length, discussed perhaps a dozen or fifteen topics, 
almost all of which are in no sense party questions. For exam- 
ple, he talked about the land grants that had been made to the 
railroads, particularly to the Pacific Railroad, during the last few 
years, and of the subsidies of money that by law have been 
given to the railroad companies. Now, this is but a specimen of 
the topics discussed by Judge Eanney. It is enough to say, in 
regard to the railroads, that they were voted for indiscriminately 
by Union men and by Democrats — peace Democrats and war 
Democrats — and that they were finally made laws by the signa- 
ture of Andrew Johnson. They are in no sense, therefore, party 
issues; and the only purpose of discussing them is, so far as I 
can see, to mislead the people, and to withdraw their attention 
from the main issues before them. 

Judge Thurman has discussed the subject of a standing army, 
lie has spoken of the great expense of keeping up a standing 
army, and, as I think, has greatly exaggerated the sum requisite — 
naming two hundred and fifty millions as the annual expense 
of it. I suppose that is three or four, or perhaps five times as 
great as the actual amount : but I do not stop to argue that mat- 
ter with him. I say to him, in regard to it, that Democrats voted 
for it in both houses, and it became a law by the signature of the 
president whom he supports. It is not, therefore, a party issue. 

I can not, in any reasonable length of time, even name the 
various topics that have been discussed in this way. Perhaps 
none has attracted more attention than the subject of finances, 
and the main issue presented by our Democratic friends on that 
subject has been this — namely, that it is for the interest of the 
people to pay off the whole of the present bonded debt by an 
issue of greenbacks. At the beginning of the canvass, the Gin- 



204 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. IIAYES. 

cinnati Enquirer, and, I think, the leading peace party paper at 
i lolumbus, and Mr. Vallandigham, presented this as the leading 
question before the people. The Enquirer told us that Demo- 
cratic conventions in forty counties had resolved in favor of it; 
and certainly if any one of the topics which have been presented 
in this way may be regarded as a party topic, that is one. If 
they have succeeded in making a new issue, that is one. On. the 
20th of last month, I spoke at Batavia, and I referred to that 
subject. I said that Judge Thurman was plainly committed 
against the issue of more greenbacks ; that when we were in the 
midst of the war, and the necessities of the country were such 
that it was necessary to get money by every means in our power, 
he had told the people there was no constitutional authority to 
issue greenbacks. I said further, that in his speech at Waverly 
he had spoken of this currency as a currency of rags; and that, 
therefore, I was authorized to say he was opposed to this new 
scheme of the Cincinnati Enquirer. That speech of mine was re- 
ported in the Cincinnati Commercial of the next morning. On 
the following day, the 22d of August, the Enquirer noticed my 
speech. I will read you the whole of the Enquirer s article on 
that subject. I do this because I think, in this county as well as 
elsewhere, Democrats are claiming the votes of Union men on 
the ground that it is wise to pay off the bonded debt by an issue 
of greenbacks, and I wish to show that Judge Thurman is op- 
posed to the scheme. Therefore, it is no party issue, because no 
party State convention has resolved in favor of it, and the peace 
party candidate for governor is against it. The Enquirer says, 
under the caption of ''Judge Thurman and the bondholders:" 

" In his speech at Batavia, Clermont county, on Tuesday, Gen- 
eral Hayes, while discussing the payment of the public debt 
question, said : 

"Judge Thurman has not yet spoken distinctly on this ques- 
tion. But his well-known opinion, that even the necessities of 
the war did not authorize, under our constitution, the issue of 
the legal-tender currency, coupled with the fact that he speaks 
of it in his Waverly speech as a currency of ' rags — only 
-warrants me in saying that he is probably opposed, on 
grounds both of constitutional law and of expediency, to the 
financial scheme of Mr. Vallandigham and of the Cincinnati 
rer. Judge Ranney and . Judge Jcwe** are also evidently 



APPENDIX. 201 



unwilling to accept the inflation theories of the Enquirer. They 
are both opposed to taking up the greenbacks now in circulation 
by an issue of bonds bearing interest, and repeat the same ar- 
guments against this policy of Johnson's administration which 
were urged by the Cincinnati Gazette and by Thaddeus Stevens 
and Judge Kelley, with much more cogency, a year or two ago." 

Commenting on the above, the Enquirer says, editorially: 

" This will render it necessary for Judge Thurman to do what 
he ought to have done in his first (Waverly) speech, define his 
position distinctly on this question. As one of his friends and 
supporters, wo call upon him to put a stop to these representa- 
tions of General Hayes by giving the people his views. 

" Is he for the bondholders or the people? Does ho believe 
that the debts due the bondholders should be paid in any other 
than the government money, which pays all other debts and lia- 
bilities, even those which were contracted in gold ? 

"Is he for one currency for the bondholders and another and 
different currency for the people ? 

" The Democracy of more than forty counties in Ohio have 
spoken out on this question, and we have no doubt the example 
will be followed by every county in the State. In some counties 
no other resolutions have been passed. 

" The time has passed when the people kept step to the music 
of candidates. The latter must now march with and not against 
the people. Will Judge Thurman define his position, for thou- 
sands of votes may depend upon it?" 

On the 27th of August, at Wapakoneta, Judge Thurman made 
a speech, which I hold in my hand — as you see, a very long 
speech, covering all of one side of the Commercial, and parts of 
two others. One would suppose that, a week having elapsed 
since the speech to which his attention was called had been 
made, that in this speech, at least, if this was an important issue 
of the canvass, we should have his position plainly and clearly 
defined. Of that long speech he devotes to that important ques- 
tion, which the Enquirer says is the real question, and which 
many of your speakers doubtless here say is the real question, 
precisely eleven lines — one short paragraph. And the pith of 
that paragraph is contained in these two lines : " I am sorry that 
what I have to say on that subject for publication I must reserve 
for some future time." 



206 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

I think that this satisfactorily shows where my friend Judge 
Thurman stands on that issue, and that we therefore need no 
longer discuss it — in short, that, as a party question, it is aban- 
doned by the candidate of the Democratic party. There is an- 
other phase of the financial question. Judge Ranney and Judge 
Jewett are telling the people that it is the policy of Secretary 
McCulloch to take up the greenback currency and issue in its 
stead interest-bearing bonds, not taxable, principal and interest, 
both payable in coin at the option of the secretary. That is 
true. That was the policy, and is the policy of Secretary Mc- 
Culloch. But they go further, and say they are authorized to 
say that this is the policy of the Union party. I take issue with 
them on that statement. They offer no proof that it is true, 
except the fact that it is the policy of the Johnson administra- 
tion; and I submit to an intelligent audience that the fact that 
Johnson and his administration are in favor of a measure is no 
evidence whatever that the Union party supports it. It is not 
for me to prove a negative, but I am prepared, nevertheless, to 
prove it. The very measure which was intended to carry out 
this policy of Secretary McCulloch to enable him to take up the 
greenback currency with interest-bearing bonds was introduced 
in Congress in March, 186G. I have here the votes upon that 
question, and I say to you that the Democratic party in both 
houses — all the members of the Democratic party in both 
houses — voted for Senator McCulloch' s plan, and that Mr. Ju- 
lian, Judge Schofield, Mr. Lawrence, all of whom I see here, and 
myself, a majority of the Republican members of Congress, voted 
against the scheme, and it became a law because a minority of 
the Union party, with the unanimous vote of the Democratic 
party, supported it; and because, when it was submitted to An- 
drew Johnson, instead of vetoing it, as he did all Union party 
measures, he wrote his name, on the 12th of April, at the bottom 
of it, "Approved, Andrew Johnson." Now, it is under that 
measure, and by virtue of that law, voted for by Mr. Finck and 
and Mr. LeBlond. of the Democratic party of Ohio, in the House 
of Representatives; it is by virtue of that law that to-day Secre- 
tary McCulloch is issuing interest-bearing bonds, not taxable, to 
take up the greenback currency of the country. 1 think, then, 
I am authorized in saying that these gentlemen are mistaken 
when they accuse the Union party of being in favor of taking 



APPENDIX. 207 



up the greenback currency and putting in the place of it inter- 
est-bearing, non-taxable bonds. 

This investigation of two or three of the leading questions 
presented to the people at the beginning of this canvass by the 
advocates of the peace party of Ohio is, I think, sufficient to 
warrant me in saying that all of the side issues presented are 
merely urged on the people to withdraw their minds from the 
great main issue which ought to engage the attention of the 
American Nation. What is that great issue ? It is reconstruc- 
tion. That is the main question before us, and until it is settled, 
and settled rightly, all other issues sink into insignificance in 
comparison with it. Fortunately for the Union party of Ohio, 
events are occurring every day at Washington which tend moro 
and more clearly to define the exact question before the people, 
showing that the main question is whether the Union shall be re- 
constructed in the interests of the rebellion or in the interests of 
loyalty and Union; whether that reconstruction shall be carried 
on by men who, during the war, were in favor of the war and 
against the rebellion, or by men who in the North were against 
the war, -and who in the South carried on the rebellion. On one 
side of this question we see Andrew Johnson, Judge Black, and 
the other leaders of the peace party of the North and the unre- 
pentant rebels of the South ; and on the other side is the great 
war secretary, Stanton, with General Grant, General Sheridan, 
General Thomas, General Howard, and the other Union com- 
manders engaged in carrying out the reconstruction acts of Con- 
gress. This presents clearly enough the question before the 
people. General Grant, in one paragraph of his letter to the 
president, said to him : 

" General Sheridan has performed his civil duties faithfully 
and intelligently. His removal will only be regarded as an effort 
to defeat the laws of Congress. It will bo interpreted by the 
unreconstructed element in the South — those who did all they 
could to break up this government by arms, and now wish to be 
the only element consulted as to the method of restoring order 
— as a triumph. It will embolden them to renewed opposition 
to the will of the loyal masses, believing that they have the ex- 
ecutive with them." 

This presents exactly the question before the people. We 
want the loyal people of the country, the victors in tho great 



208 LIFE OP RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

struggle wo have passed through, to do the work; we want re- 
construction upon such principles, and by means of such meas- 
ures that the causes which made reconstruction necessary shall 
not exist in the reconstructed Union ; we want that foolish notion 
of State rights, which teaches that the State is superior to the 
Nation — that there is a State sovereignty which commands the 
allegiance of every citizen higher than the sovereignty of the 
nation — we want that notion left out of the reconstructed 
Union ; we want it understood that whatever doubts may have 
existed prior to the war as to the relation of the State to the 
National government, that now the National government is su- 
preme, anything in the constitution or laws of any State to the 
contrary notwithstanding. Again, as one of the causes of the 
rebellion, we want slavery left out, not merely in name, but in 
fact, and forever; we want the last vestige, the last relic of that 
institution, rooted out of the laws and institutions of every State ; 
we want that in the South there shall be no more suppression 
of free discussion. I notice that in the long speech of my friend, 
Judge Thurman, he says that for nearly fifty years, throughout 
the length and breadth of the land, freedom of speech and of 
the press was never interfered with, either by the government or 
the people. For more than thirty years, fellow-citizens, there 
has been no such thing as free discussion in the South. Those 
moderate speeches of Abraham Lincoln on the subject of slavery 
— not one of them — could have been delivered without endan- 
gering his life, south of Mason and Dixon's line. We want in 
the reconstructed Union that there shall be the same freedom 
of the press and freedom of speech in the States of the South 
that there always has been in the States of the North. Again, 
we want the reconstructed Union upon such principles that the 
men of the South who, during the war, were loyal and true to 
the government, shall be protected in life, liberty, and property, 
and in the exercise of their political rights. It becomes the 
solemn duty of the loyal victors in the great struggle to see that 
the men who, in the midst of difficulties, discouragements, and 
dangers in the South were true, are protected in these rights. 
And, in order that our reconstruction shall be carried out faith- 
fully and accomplish these objects, we further want that the 
work shall bo in the hands of the right men. Andrew Johnson, 
in the days when he was loyal, said the work of reconstruction 



APPENDIX. 209 



ought to be placed absolutely in the hands of the loyal men of 
the State ; that rebels, and particularly leading rebels, ought not 
to participate in tbat work ; that while that work is going on 
they must take back seats. We want tbat understood in our 
work of reconstruction. How important it is to have the right 
men in charge of this work appears upon the most cursory ex- 
amination of what has already been done. President Lincoln 
administered the same laws substantially — was sworn to support 
the same constitution with Andrew Johnson — yet how different 
the reconstruction as carried out by these two men. Lincoln's 
reconstruction in all the States which he undertook to reorgan- 
ize gave to those States loyal governments, loyal governors, 
loyal legislatures, judges, and officers of the law. Andrew John- 
son, administering the same constitution and the same laws, re- 
constructs a number of States, and in all of them leading rebels 
are elected governors, leading rebels are members of the legis- 
lature, and leading rebels are sent to Congress. It makes, then, 
the greatest difference to the people of this country who it is 
that does the work. 

This, my friends, brings me to a proposition to which I call the 
attention of every audience that I have occasion to address, and 
that is this, that until the work of reconstruction is complete, 
until every question arising out of the rebellion relating to the 
integrity of the Nation and to human rights has been settled, 
and settled rightly, no man ought to be trusted with power in 
this country, who, during the struggle for the Nation's life, was 
unfaithful to Union and liberty. That is the proposition upon 
which I go before the people of Ohio. At the beginning of the 
canvass, as I have said, the gentlemen who are engaged in advo- 
cating the claims of the peace party of Ohio did not desire to 
have this record discussed. I am happy to know by this long 
Wapakoneta speech of Judge Thurman that at last they have 
found it necessary to come to the discussion of the true question. 
Judge Thurman, in that speech, invites us to the discussion of 
it. He says : 

" I give all of them this bold and unequivocal defiance, tbat 
there is no one act of my life, or one sentence ever uttered by 
me that I am not prepared to have investigated by the American 
people ; and I wish them to stand up to the same rule, that I 



210 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

may see what is in their past record, and see how it tallies with 
what they say to the American people at the present time." 

He proceeds to do this. He proceeds to examine the record 
of various gentlemen connected with the Union party. Now, I 
am not in the habit of giving challenges or accepting challenges, 
but I desire, for a few minutes, to ask the attention of this audi- 
ence to the record of my friend, Judge Thurman. He under- 
takes to justify the course he took as a leader of the peace party 
of Ohio, by telling us what Mr. Lincoln said in 1848. Now, 
what is it that Mr. Lincoln said ? He made a speech during the 
Mexican war as to the title which Texas had to certain lands in 
dispute between the State of Texas and Mexico, or rather be- 
tween the United States and Mexico. He laid down the doc- 
trine that a revolutionary government is entitled to own just as 
much of the property of the former government as it has suc- 
ceeded in conquering; and he says, in the course of that speech, 
that it is the right of every people to revolutionize; that the 
right of revolution, in short, belongs to every people; that it was 
the right exercised by our forefathers in 1776. Now, that is all 
true — that is all correct; but how does my friend Judge Thur- 
man find any justification for the rebellion in that? What is 
the right of revolution ? It is the right to resist a government 
under which you live, if that government is guilty of intolerable 
oppression or injustice, but not otherwise. And that is the doc- 
trine of Abraham Lincoln. Now, in order to make that a prece- 
dent for the rebellion, Judge Thurman is bound to take the posi- 
tion that, in the case of the rebel States, there had been acts of 
intolerable oppression and injustice done to that part of tho 
country which went into rebellion. I know that the rebels, for 
the most part, did not put the rebellion upon that ground ; but 
Judge Thurman now does it for them. He makes it out — or 
must make it out to sustain himself — that it was a case of revo. 
lution, growing out of the exercise of that right which our 
fathers exorcised in 1776. Now, if Judge Thurman can show 
that there was justification for tho rebellion, he has made out 
his case. If that rebellion was not justified by such circum- 
stances — if there was no such intolerable injustice and oppres- 
sion — he has failed in his precedent. He goes further, and says 
that Mr. Wade, Chief Justice Chase, Secretary Stanton, and Gen- 
eral Butler all held sentiments before the war the same as tho 



APPENDIX. 211 



sentiments which he held then, and holds now, on the subject 
of the rights of the States. Suppose they did — suppose they be- 
longed to the same party before the war — is that any defense of 
his conduct during the war? They saw fit, after the war had 
broken out, to rally to the side of their country, notwithstand- 
ing any notions or theories they might have held with regard to 
the rights of the States. 

I do not stop now to discuss the correctness of Judge Thur- 
man's opinions as to the course of these men prior to the war. 
It is enough for me to say that the question I make — the ques- 
tion which the people of Ohio make — is, What was your conduct 
after it was found that there was a conspiracy to break up the 
Union, after war was upon us, and armies were raised — what was 
your conduct then ? That is the question before the people. 
And I ask of an intelligent audience, what was the duty of a 
good citizen after that war for the destruction of the government 
and the Union had begun ? Need I ask any old Jackson Demo- 
crat what is his duty when the Union is at stake? In 180G, 
Aaron Burr proposed this matter to Andrew Jackson, of making 
a new confederacy in the Southwest. Jackson said : 

" I hate the Dons, and I would like to see Mexico dismem- 
bered ; but before I would see one State of this Union severed 
from the rest, I would die in the last ditch." 

That was Jackson's Democracy. Douglass said : 

" This is no time for delay. The existence of a conspiracy is 
now known ; armies are raised to accomplish it. There can bo 
but two sides to the question. A man must be either for the 
United States or against the United States. There can be no 
neutrals in this war — only patriots and traitors." 

There is the Douglass doctrine. But I need not go back to 
Jackson and Douglass. I have the opinions of the very gentle- 
men who now lead the peace party on this subject. Let me read 
you a resolution, introduced and passed through a Democratic 
convention, in 1848, by Clement L. Vallandigham : 

"Resolved, That whatever opinions might have been enter- 
tained of the origin, necessity or justice, by the Tories of tho 
revolutionary war, by the Federalists of the late war with Eng- 
land, or by the Whigs and Abolitionists of the present war witli 
Mexico, the fact of their country being engaged in such a war 
ought to have been sufficient for them, and to have precluded 



212 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

debate on that subject till a successful termination of the war, 
and that in the meantime the patriot could have experienced no 
difficulty in recognizing his place on the side of his country, and 
could never have been induced to yield either physical or moral 
aid to the enemy." 

1 will quote also from Judge Thurman himself. In a speech 
lecturing one of his colleagues, who thought the Mexican war 
was unnecessary, he says : 

" It is a strange way to support one's country, right or wrong, 
to declare after war has begun, when it exists both in law and in 
fact, that the war is aggressive, unholy, unrighteous, and damn 
able on the part of the government of that country, and on that 
government rests its responsibility and its wrongfulness. It is 
a strange way to support one's country right or wrong in a war, 
to tax one's imagination to the utmost to depict the disastrous 
consequences of the contest ; to dwell on what it has already 
cost and what it will cost in future; to depict her troops 
prostrated by disease and dying with pestilence; in a word, to 
destroy, as far as possible, the moral force of the government in 
the struggle, and hold it up to its own people and the world as 
the aggressor that merits their condemnation. It was for this 
that I arraigned my colleague, and that I intend to arraign him. 
It was because his remarks, as far as they could have any in- 
fluence, were evidently calculated to depress the spirits of his 
own countrymen, to lessen the moral force of his own govern- 
ment, and to inspire with confidence and hope the enemies of his 
country." 

He goes on further to say : 

" What a singular mode it was of supporting her in a war to 
bring against the war nearly all the charges that were brought 
by the peace party Federalists against the last war , to denounce 
it as an unrighteous, unholy, and damnable war ; to hold up our 
government to the eyes of the world as the aggressors in the 
conflict; to charge it with motives of conquest and aggrandize 
ment; fco parade and portray in the darkest colors all the hor 
rors of war; to dwell upon its cost and depict its calamities.'' 

Now, that was the doctrine of Judge Thurman as to theduties 
of citizens in time of war — in time of such a war as tin' .Mexican 
war even, in which no vital interest of the country could by pos- 
sibility sutler. .Judge Thurman says that General Hayes, in his 



APPENDIX. 213 



speech, has a great many slips cut from the newspapers, and that 
he must have had some sewing society of old ladies to cut out the 
blips for him. I do n't know how he found that out. I never 
told it, and you know the ladies never tell secrets that are con- 
fided to them. I hold in myhand a speech of Judge Thurman, 
from which I have read extracts, and I find that he has in it 
slips cut from more than twenty different prints, sermons, news- 
papers, old speeches, and pamphlets, to show how, in the war of 
1812, certain Federalists uttered unpatriotic sentiments. I pre- 
sume he must have acquired his slips on that day in the way he 
says I acquired mine now. 

Now, my friends, I propose to hold Judge Thurman to no se- 
vere rule of accountability for his conduct during the war. I 
merely ask that it shall be judged by his own rule : " Your coun- 
try is engaged in war, and it is the duty of every citizen to say 
nothing and do nothing which shall depress the spirits of his 
own countrymen, nothing that shall encourage the enemies of 
his country, or give them moral aid or comfort." That is the 
rule. Now, Judge Thurman, how does your conduct square with 
it ? I do not propose to begin at the beginning of the war, or 
even just before the war, to cite the record of Judge Thurman. 
I am willing to say that perhaps men might have been mistaken 
at that time. They might have supposed in the beginning a 
conciliatory policy, a non-coercive policy, would in some way 
avoid the threatened struggle. But I ask you to approach the 
period when the war was going on, when armies to the number 
of hundreds of thousands of men were ready on one side and 
the other, and when the whole world knew what was the nature 
of the great struggle going on in America. Taking the begin- 
ning of 1863, how stands the conflict ? We have pressed the re- 
bellion out of Kentucky and through Tennessee. Grant stands 
before Vicksburg, held at bay by the army of Pemberton ; Rose- 
cranz, after the capture of Nashville, has pressed forward to 
Murfreesboro, but is still held out of East Tennessee by the 
army of Bragg. The army of the Potomac and the army of Lee, 
in Virginia, are balanced, the one against the other. The whole 
world knows that that exhausting struggle can not last long 
without deciding in favor of one side or the other. That the 
year 1863 is big with the fate of Union and of liberty, every 
intelligent man in the world knows — that on one side it is a 



214 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

struggle for nationality and human rights. There is not in all 
Europe a petty despot who lives by grinding the masses of the 
people, who does not know that Lincoln and the Union are his 
enemies. There is not a friend of freedom in all Europe who 
does not know that Lincoln and the loyal army are fighting in the 
cause of free government for all the world. Now, in that con- 
test, where are you, Judge Thurman ? It is a time when we 
need men and money, when we need to have our people in- 
spired with hope and confidence. Your sons and brothers are 
in the field. Their success depends upon your conduct at home. 

The men who are to advise you what to do have upon them a 
dreadful responsibility to give you wise and patriotic advice. 
Judge Thurman, in the speech I am quoting from, says : 

" But now, my friends, I shall not deal with obscure newspa- 
pers or obscure men. What a private citizen like Allen G. 
Thurman may have said in 1861 is a matter of indifference." 

Ah, no, Judge Thurman, the Union party does not*propose to 
allow your record to go without investigation because you are a 
private citizen. I know you held no official position under the 
government at the time I speak of; but, sir, you had for years 
been a leading, able, and influential man in the great'party which 
had often carried your State. You were acting under grave re- 
sponsibilities. More than that, during, that year 1863, you were 
more than a private citizen. You were one of the delegates to 
the State convention of that year ; you were one of the commit- 
tee that forms your party platform in that convention ; you were 
one of the central committee that carries on the canvass in the 
absence of your standard-bearers ; and you were one of the ora- 
tors of the party. No, sir, you were not a private citizen in 1S63. 
You were one of the leading and one of the ablest men in your 
party in that year, speaking through the months of July, August, 
September, and October, in behalf of the candidate of the peace 
party. You can not escape as a private citizen. 

Well, sir, in the beginning of that eventful year, there rises in 
Congress the ablest member of the peace party, to advise Con- 
gress and to advise the people, and what does he say ? 

" You have not conquered the South. You never will. It is 
not in the nature of things possible, especially under your aus-" 
pices. Money you have expended without limit; blood you have 
poured out like water." 



APPENDIX. 215 



Now, mark the taunt — -the words of discouragement that were 
sent to the people and to the army of the Union : 

"Defeat, debt, taxation, sepulchers — these are your trophies. 
Can you get men to enlist now at any price?" 

Listen again to the words that were sent to the army and to 
the loyal people : 

"Ah, sir, it is easier to die at home." 

We knew that, Judge Thurman, better than Mr. Vallandigham 
knew it. We had seen our comrades falling and dying alone on 
the mountain side and in the swamps — dying in the prison-pens 
of the Confederacy and in the crowded hospitals, North and 
South. Yet he had the face to stand up in Congress, and say to 
the people and the world, "Ah, sir, it is easier to die at home.' 
Judge Thurman, where are you at this time ? He goes to Co- 
lumbus to the State convention, on the 11th of June of that 
year, in all the capacities in which I have named him — as a dele- 
gate, as committeeman, and as an orator — and he spends that 
whole summer in advocating the election of the man who taunted 
us with the words, " Defeat, debt, taxation, sepulchers — these 
are your trophies." 

In every canvass you know there is a key-note. What was 
the key-note of that canvass? Who sounded it? It came over 
to us from Canada. On the 15th of July, 1863, Mr. Vallandig- 
ham wrote, accepting the nomination of that convention of 
Judge Thurman' s. He said, in his letter: 

" If this civil war is to terminate only by the subjugation or 
submission of the South to force and arms, the infant of to-day 
will not live to see the end of it. No ; in another way only can 
it be brought to a close. Traveling a thousand miles and more, 
through nearly half of the Confederate States, and sojourning 
for a time at widely different points, I met not one man, woman, 
or child who was not resolved to perish, rather than yield to the 
pressure of arms, even in the most desperate extremity. And 
whatever may and must be the varying fortune of the war, in all 
of which I recognize the hand of Providence pointing visibly to 
the ultimate issue of this great trial of the States and people of 
America, they are better prepared now, every way, to make good 
their inexorable purpose than at any period since the beginning 
of the struggle." 

That was the key-note of the campaign. It was the platform 



216 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

of the candidate in behalf of whom Judge Thurman went 
through the State of Ohio — all over the State — in July, August, 
and September, up to the night of the 12th of October — making 
his last speech just twenty-four hours before the glad news went 
out to all the world, over the wires, that the people of Ohio had 
elected John Brough by over one hundred thousand majority, 
in preference to the author of the sentiment, " Defeat, debt, 
taxation, sepulchers." 

And how true was that sentiment which had been indorsed 
by the peace party. I do not question the motives of men in 
any of my speeches. I merely ask as to the facts. " Better pre- 
pared," said he, " than ever before," on the 15th of July. On 
that theory, they went through the canvass to the end. What 
was the fact? On the 15th of July, 1863, Grant had captured 
Vicksburg. That gallant, glorious son of Ohio, who perished 
afterward in the Atlanta campaign, and whose honored remains 
now sleep near his old home on the lake shore, General James 
B. McPherson, on the 4th of July, had ridden at the head of a 
triumphant host into Vicksburg. On the 7th of July, Banks had 
captured Port Hudson. A few days afterward, a party of sere- 
naders, calling upon Mr. Lincoln, saw that good man, who had 
been bowed down with the weight and cares of office; they saw 
his haggard face lit up with joy and cheer, and he said to them : 
"At last, Grant is in Vicksburg. The Father of Waters, the Mis- 
sissippi, again flows unvexed to the sea." 

On the 15th of July, what else had happened? The army of 
Lee, defiantly crowding up into Pennsylvania, and claiming to 
go where it pleased, and take what it pleased, only doubting 
whether they would first capture Washington, Baltimore, Phila- 
delphia, or New York, and concluding finally that it was a mat- 
ter of military strategy first to capture the Army of the Potomac 
— that army, which had invaded Pennsylvania under such flat- 
tering auspices, was, on the 15th of July, when Mr. Vallan- 
digham's letter was written, straggling back over the swollen 
waters of the Potomac, glad to escape from the pursuing armies 
of the Union, with the loss of thirty thousand of its bravest and 
best, killed, wounded, and captured, and utterly unable ever 
after during the war to set foot upon free soil except in such 
fragments as were captured by our armies in subsequent battles 
That was the condition of the two great armies when Mr. Val- 



APPENDIX. 217 



landigliam uttered that sentiment; and on that sentiment my 
friend, Judge Thurman, argued his case through all that sum- 
mer. 

But wisdom was not learned even at the close of 18G3 by this 
peace party. Things were greatly changed in the estimation of 
every loyal man. We had now not merely got possession of the 
Mississippi river — we had not merely driven the army of Lee 
out of Pennsylvania, never again to return, but the battle of 
Mission Ridge and the battle of Knoxville had been fought. 
That important strategic region, East Tennessee, was now within 
our lines. From that abode of loyalty, the mountain region of 
East Tennessee, we could pierce to the very heart of the South- 
ern Confederacy. We were now in possession of the interior 
lines, giving us an immense advantage, and we were in a condi- 
tion to march southeast to Atlanta and northeast to Richmond ; 
yet with this changed state of affairs, where is my friend Judge 
Thurman? Advising the people? What is he advising them 
to do? He says Allen G. Thurman was a private citizen. Not 
so. He held no official position, I know, under the government. 
Fortunately for the people of this country, they were not giving 
official positions in Ohio to men of his opinions and sentiments 
at that time. [A voice, " They won't now, either."] But he was 
made delegate at large from the State of Ohio to the convention 
to meet at Chicago to nominate a president and form a platform 
on which that nominee should stand. Mr. Vallandigham was a 
district delegate and one of the committee to form a platform, 
and he drew the most important resolution. The principal 
plank of that platform is of his construction. You are perfectly 
familiar with it. It merely told the people that the war had 
been for four years a failure, and advised them to prepare to ne- 
gotiate with this Confederate nation on our Southern borders. 
Well, when this advice was given to the Nation, we were still in 
the midst of the war, and were prosecuting it with every pros- 
pect of success. What had been accomplished in 1863 enabled 
us, with great advantages, to press upon the rebellion. I re- 
member well when I first read that resolution declaring the war 
a four years' failure. It came to the army in which I was sen ing 
on the same day that the news came to us that Sherman had 
captured Atlanta. We heard of both together. The war a four 
years' failure, said the Chicago convention. I well remember 



218 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

how that evening our pickets shouted the good news to the 
pickets of the enemy. What good news ? News that a conven- 
tion representing nearly one-half of the people of the North 
had concluded that the war was a failure ? No such news was 
shouted from our picket line. The good news that they shouted 
was that Sherman had captured Atlanta. 

This, my friends, is a part of that record which we are invited 
to examine by my friend Judge Thurman. I ask you to apply 
to it the principle that whoever, during the great struggle, was 
unfaithful to the cause of the country is not to bo trusted to bo 
one of the men to harvest and secure the legitimate fruits of 
the victory, which the Union people and the Union army won 
during the rebellion. In the great struggle in 1863 in Ohio, I 
had not an opportunity to hear the eloquent voice of John 
Brough, which I knew stirred the hearts of the people like the 
sound of a trumpet, but I read, as occasion offered, his speeches, 
and 1 saw not one in which he did not warn the young men — 
warn the Democrats of Ohio — that if they remained through 
that struggle opposed to this country, the conduct particularly 
of leading men would never be forgotten, and never forgiven. 
Now, in this canvass, I merely have to ask the people to remem- 
ber the prediction of honest John Brough, and see that that 
prediction is made good. 

It is not worth while now to consider, or undertake to predict, 
when we shall cease to talk of the records of those men. It 
does seem to me that it will, for many years to come, be the voice 
of the Union people of the State that for a man who as a leader — 
as a man having control in political affairs — that for such a man 
who has ojiposed the interests of his country during the war, 
" the post of honor is the private station." When shall we stop 
talking about it ? When ought we to stop talking about that 
record, when leading men come before the people ? Certainly 
not until every question arising out of the rebellion, and every 
question which is akin to the questions which made the rebel- 
lion, is settled. Perhaps these men will be remembered long 
after these questions are settled ; perhaps their conduct will long 
be remembered. What was the result of this advice to the peo- 
ple ? It prolonged the war ; it made it impossible to get recruits ; 
it made it necessary that we should have drafts. They opposed 
the drafts, and that made rioting, which required that troops 



APPEEDIX. 219 



should be called from all the armies in the field, to preserve the 
peace at home. From forty to a hundred thousand men in the 
different States of this Union were kept within the loyal States 
to preserve the peace at home. And now, when they talk to you 
about the debt and about the burden of taxation, remember how 
it happened that the war was so prolonged, that it was so expen- 
sive, and that the debt grew to such large proportions. 

There are other things, too, to be remembered. I recollect 
that at the close of the" last session of Congress, I went over to 
Arlington, the estate formerly of Robert E. Lee, and I saw there 
the great National cemetery into which that beautiful place has 
been converted. I saw the graves of 18,000 Union soldiers, 
marked with white head-boards, denoting the name of each oc- 
cupant, and his regiment and company. Passing over those 
broad acres, covered with the graves of the loyal men who had 
died in defense of their country, I came upon that which was 
even more touching than these 18,000 head-boards. I found a 
large granite, with this inscription upon it: 

" Beneath this stone repose the remains of two thousand one 
hundred and eleven unknown soldiers, gathered, after the war, 
from the field of Bull Run and the route to the Rappahannock. 
Their remains could not be identified, but their names and deaths 
are recorded in the archives of their country, and its grateful 
citizens honor them as of their noble army of martyrs. May 
they rest in peace. September, 1S!j6." 

I say to those men who were instrumental and prominent in 
prolonging the war, by opposing it, that when honeyed words 
and soft phrases can erase from the enduring granite inscriptions 
like these, the American people may forget their conduct; but 
I believe they will not do so until some such miracle is accom- 
plished. 

That is all I desire to say this afternoon upon the record of the 
peace party of Ohio. A few words upon another topic that is 
much discussed in this canvass, and that is the proposed amend- 
ment to the constitution of the State of Ohio. At the beginning, 
I desire to say, that there may be no misunderstanding — and I 
suppose there is no misunderstanding upon that subject — that I 
am in favor of the adoption of that amendment, and I trust that 
every Union man, and every Democrat too, will vote for it next 
October. And why do I say this ? Let vis discuss it a moment. 



220 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 



It consists of four parts. First, it disfranchises any man who he- 
comes a resident of the State of Ohio, or who was a citizen of 
Ohio, who fought in the rebellion against the country. Is n't 
that right? If you want that to go into your constitution, vote 
for the amendment. It disfranchises every man who, being lia- 
ble to the draft, when the country needed them at the front — 
when the soldiers doing their duty at the front were anxiously 
looking for their aid — it disfranchises every man who, at such 
time, ran away to escape the draft. Isn't that right? In the 
next place, it disfranchises every man who deserted his comrades 
at the front, and ran away to vote the peace party ticket at tho 
rear. Isn't that right ? It disfranchises him whether he voted 
that ticket or not, I may observe. If you want these provisions 
in your State constitution, vote for the amendment. In the next 
place, it gives the right of suffrage to all the negroes of Ohio. 
Mark the phrase : I have not said impartial suffrage or manhood 
suffrage. I wish to be understood. It gives the suffrage to the 
negroes of Ohio upon the same terms that it is given to white 
men. The reason I am in favor of that is because it is right. 

Let me have the ears of my Democratic friends on that ques- 
tion a moment. If Democracy has any meaning now that is 
good — any favorable meaning — it is that Democracy is a govern- 
ment of the people, by the people, and for the people. It is a 
government in which every man who has to obey the laws has a 
part in making the laws, unless disqualified by crime. Then the 
proposition I am for is a Democratic proposition. Again, it is 
according to the principles upon which good men have always 
desired to see our institutions placed, namely, that all men are 
entitled to equal rights before the law. They are not equal in 
any other respect. Nobody claims that they are. But we pro- 
pose to give to each man the same rights which you want for 
yourself. It is, in short, obeying the rule of the Great Teacher: 
" Do unto others as ye would that others should do unto you." 
Abraham Lincoln said: " No man is good enough to govern an- 
other without that other man's consent." Is not that true? 
Good as you think you are, are you good enough absolutely to 
govern another man without that other man's consent? If you 
really think so, just change shoes with that other man, and see 
if you are willing to be governed yourself, without your consent, 
by somebody else. The declaration of independence says gov- 



APPENDIX. 221 



ernments derive their just powers from the consent of the gov- 
erned. Now, do n't you see there is no way by which one man 
can give consent to be governed by another man in a republican 
government except by the ballot? There is no way provided by 
which you can consent to give powers to a government except 
by the ballot. Therefore every man governed under our system 
is entitled to the ballot. 

So much for principle. One word now as to why our Demo- 
cratic friends oppose it. I remember their opposing the exten- 
sion of suffrage once under circumstances that made many of us 
think they were doing wrong. During the years 1861, 1862, 
1863, and 1864, I was a citizen of the Fifteenth ward, in Cincin- 
nati; I had lived there ever since it was a ward. All the prop- 
erty I had in the world was taxed there, real or personal ; and 
there was a party in Ohio of loyal Union men, who said I and 
others who were with me ought to have a right to vote, although 
I was not in the Fifteenth ward, but was serving the country in 
the field against the rebels. The Democratic party in Ohio — 
these very peace men — said no. Why did they say I should not 
vote ? I never heard but one good reason, and that was the ap- 
prehension they had that if the soldiers did vote, they would n't 
vote the Democratic ticket. That's what's the matter. Now, 
I suspect we have the same difficulty on this proposition; I sus- 
pect that the real trouble is that they fear if the colored man 
has a vote, they have dealt so hardly with him these last few 
years that when he comes to vote he will vote against the Dem- 
ocratic party. That's what's the matter. Why, for the sake 
of political power, these Democrats of Ohio have not been \\n- 
willing to look kindly toward the colored man. Do you remem- 
ber we once had black laws in Ohio which kept the colored men 
out of the State? Who repealed those laws? Why did they do 
it? The Democratic party did it, because they could get politi- 
cal power by it. I suspect that if it were quite certain that the 
colored vote would elect Allen G. Thurman Governor of Ohio, 
our Democratic friends would not object to it at all. What, 
then, do I say to the Union men ? This objection may be very 
good for the Democrats, but it is not a wise one for you. 

I commend to you Union men who are a little weak on this 
question, or perhaps I should say a little strong, the example of 
the Union men of the country during the war. Abraham Lin- 



222 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

coin thought, in 1862, it was wise to proclaim freedom to the 
slaves. Many good Union men thought it was unwise — thought 
Mr. Lincoln was going too far or too fast — but the sequel justi- 
fied the wisdom of Abraham Lincoln. Again, he thought it was 
wise that colored men should be placed in our armies. There were 
good soldiers and good Union men who thought it was unwise. 
They feared that Mr. Lincoln was going too fast or too far, but 
events justified it. Now, everybody agrees that in both cases 
Abraham Lincoln was right. Now, the example I commend to our 
Union friends who are doubting on this great question is the ex- 
ample of those Union men during the war who doubted the wis- 
dom of these other measures. Greatly as they were opposed to the 
proclamation of Abraham Lincoln, strongly as they were opposed 
to the enlistment of colored soldiers, I say to you I never heard 
of one good Union man, in the army or out of it, who left his 
party because of that difference with Mr. Lincoln. I commend 
that example to the Union men who now doubt about colored 
suffrage. The truth is, that every step made in advance toward 
the standard of the right has in the event always proved a safe 
and wise step. Every step toward the right has proved a step 
toward the expedient; in short, that in politics, in morals, in 
public and private life, the right is always expedient. 
I thank you, fellow-citizens, for your kind attention. 



Speech of Governor Hayes, on his re-nomination, deliv- 
ered June 23, 1869. 

Twice since the organization of existing political parties the 
people of Ohio have trusted the law-making power of the State 
in the hands of the Democratic party. They first tried the ex- 
periment twelve years ago, and such were the results that ten 
years elapsed before they ventured upon a repetition of it. Two 
years ago, in a time of reaction, which was general throughout 
the country, the Democratic party, by a minority of the popular 
vote, having large advantages in the apportionment, obtained 



APPENDIX. 223 



complete control of the legislature in both of its branches. They 
came into power, proclaiming that the past ought to be forgot- 
ten ; that old issues and divisions should be laid aside; that new 
ideas and new measures required attention; and they were par- 
ticularly emphatic and earnest in declaring that the enormous 
burdens of debt and taxation under which the people were 
struggling made retrenchment and economy the supreme duty 
of the hour. 

These were their promises, and the manner in which they 
were kept is now before the people for their judgment. Disre- 
garding the well-known and solemnly-expressed will of Ohio, 
they began the business of their first session by passing fruitless 
resolutions to rescind the ratification of the 14th amendment to 
the constitution of the United States. 

They placed on the statute book visible admixture bills, to de- 
prive citizens of the right of suffrage— a constitutional right long 
enjoyed and perfectly well settled by repeated decisions of the 
highest court having jurisdiction of the question. 

They repealed the law allowing, after the usual residence, the 
disabled veterans of the Union army to vote in the township in 
which the National .Soldiers' Home is situated; and enacted a 
law designed to deprive of the right of suffrage a large number 
'of young men engaged in acquiring an education at "any school, 
seminary, academy, college, university, or other institution of 
learning." To prevent citizens who were deprived of their con- 
stitutional rights by these acts from obtaining prompt relief in 
the Supreme Court, they passed a law prohibiting that court from 
taking up causes on its docket according to its own judgment of 
what was demanded by public justice, in any case " except where 
the person seeking relief had been convicted of murder in the 
first degree, or of a crime the punishment of which was confine- 
ment in the penitentiary." 

I believe it is the general judgment of the people of Ohio that 
the passage of these measures, unconstitutional as some of them 
are, and unjust as they all are, was mainly due to the fact that 
the classes of citizens disfranchised by them do not commonly 
vote with the Democratic party. The Republican party con- 
demns all such legislation, and demands its repeal. 

On the important subject of suffrage, General Grant, in his 
inaugural message, expresses the convictions of the Republican 



224 LIFE OP RUTHERFORD B. IIAYES. 

party. He says : " The question of suffrage is one which is 
likely to agitate the public so long as a portion of the citizens 
of the Nation are excluded from its privileges in any State. It 
seems to me very desirable that this question should be settled 
now, and I entertain the hope and express the desire that it 
may be by the ratification of the fifteenth amendment to the 
constitution." 

During the canvass which resulted in the election of the late 
Democratic legislature the Republicans were charged with having 
used $800,000, raised for the relief of soldiers' families, to pay 
the State debt, and this charge was insisted upon, notwithstand- 
ing a majority of the Democratic members had supported the 
measure. The idea was everywhere held out that if the Demo- 
cratic party were successful this money would be restored to the 
relief fund and expended for the benefit of the soldiers. The 
failure to redeem this pledge is aggravated by the fact that the 
legislature, by a strictly party vote in the Senate, refused to pro- 
vide for the support of soldiers' destitute orphans at homes to 
be established without expense to the State by the voluntary 
contributions of patriotic and charitable people. 

But of all the pledges upon which the Democratic party ob- 
tained power in the last legislature, the most important, and 
those in regard to which the just expectations of the people have 
been most signally disappointed, are their pledges in relation to 
financial affairs — to expenditure, to debt, and to taxation. Upon 
this subject the people are compelled to feel a very deep interest. 
The flush times of the war have been followed by a financial re- 
action, and lor the last three or four years the country has been 
on the verge of a financial crisis. The burdens of taxation bear 
heavily upon labor and upon capital. The Democratic party, 
profuse alike of accusations against their adversaries, and of 
promises of retrenchment and reform, were clothed with power 
to deal with the heaviest part of these burdens, viz: with the 
expenditures, debts, assessments, and taxes which arc authorized 
by Shite legislation. The results of their two years of power are 
now before the people. They are contained in the 65th and G6th 
volumes of the Laws of Ohio. Let any Republican diligently 
study these volumes, and he will fully convprehend the meaning 
of -lob when lie said, "Oh, that mine adversary had written a 
boob \" intelligent man can read carefully these volumes, 



APPENDIX. 225 



and note the number and character of the laws increasing the 
expenses and liabilities of the State and authorizing additional 
debts and additional taxation for city and village, for county 
and township purposes, without having the conviction forced 
upon him that the gentlemen who enacted these laws hold to 
She opinion that the way to increase wealth is to increase taxa- 
tion, and that public debts are public blessings. 

When tho late Democratic Legislature assembled they found 
the revenue raised yearly in Ohio by taxation to pay the interest 
on the State and local debts and for State and local expenditures 
was $20,253,015.34. This is at the rate of almost forty dollars 
for every vote cast in the State at the last election, and exceeds 
seven dollars for each inhabitant of the State. Of this largo 
sum collected annually by direct taxation less than one-fifth or 
$3,981,099.79 was for State purposes, and more than four-fifths 
or $10,272,515.34 was for local purposes. The increase of taxa- 
tion for State purposes during the last few years has been small, 
but many items of taxation for local purposes are increasing 
rajridly. The taxation, for example, in the thirty-three cities of 
the State has increased until, according to the report of the aud- 
itor of State, " in several the rates of levy exceed three percent., 
and the average rate in all is but little short of three per cent." 
In this condition of the financial affairs of the State, and in the 
embarrassed and depressed condition of the business of the 
country, the duty of the legislature was plain. They were to 
see that no unnecessary additional burdens were imposed uj^on 
the people — that all wholesome restraints and limitations upon 
the power of local authorities to incur debts and levy taxes 
should be preserved and enforced, and especially that no in- 
crease of liabilities should be authorized except in cases of press- 
ing necessity. 

Now consider the facts. These gentlemen professed to be 
fcrupulously strict in their observance of the requirements of 
the constitution. Yet under provisions which contemplate one 
legislative session in two years they held two sessions in the same 
year, and three sessions in their term of two years. They were 
in session two hundred and sixty days — longer than was ever be- 
fore known in Ohio, and at an expense of $250,624.10 — more 
than doublo that of their Republican predecessors. 

Thev created between thirty and forty new offices at a cost to 



226 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

the people for salaries, fees, and expenses of at least $75,000 per 
annum. They added to the State liabilities for various purposes 
about $1,500,000. In order to avoid an increase of taxes levied 
for State purposes they diminished the sum levied to pay the 
State debt, and increased the levy for other State purposes al- 
most $600,000. 

The acts of the last legislature in relation to local debts and 
local taxes are of the most extraordinary character. These acts 
relate to raising money for county purposes, for township pur- 
poses, for city and village purposes, and for special purposes. 
These taxes or debts are levied or incurred under the direction 
of county commissioners, township trustees, or of city or village 
councils, who derive their authority exclusively from State legis- 
lation. The State legislature has therefore the control of tho 
whole matter. Now, the general statement which I wish to make, 
and which I believe is sustained by the facts, is, that the late 
Democratic legislature authorized greater local pecuniary bur- 
dens to be imposed upon the people of Ohio, without their con- 
sent, than were ever before authorized by any General Assembly, 
either in peace or war, since the organization of our State gov- 
ernment. 

Sixty or seventy different acts were passed authorizing debts 
to be contracted, amounting in the aggregate to more than 
$25,000,000. A large part of them bear eight per cent, interest, 
and a very small part bear less than seven and three-tenths per 
cent, interest. And they passed seventy or eighty acts by which 
additional taxes were authorized to the amount of over 
$10,000,000. 

Now it is to be hoped, as to a considerable part of the local 
debts and local taxes authorized by the late Democratic legisla 
I lire, that the people will not be burdened with them. It is to bo 
hoped that county commissioners, city councils, and other local 
boards, will show greater moderation and economy in tho exer- 
cise of their dangerous and oppressive powers under the laws than 
was exhibited in their enactment. But in any event, nothing is 
more certain than that the people of Ohio have great reason to ap- 
prehend that the evil consequences of these laws will be felt- 
in their swollen tax bills for many years. 

It is probable that many of the acts to which I have alluded, 
creating additional olliees, incurring Slate liabilities, and au- 



APPENDIX. 227 



thorizing local debts and taxes were required by sound policy. 
But a candid investigation will show that the larger part of these 
enormous burdens of expenditure, debt, and taxation could and 
ought to have been avoided. 

The last legislature afforded examples of many of the worst 
evils to which legislative bodies are liable — long sessions, exces- 
sive legislation, unnecessary expenditures, and recklessness in 
authorizing local debts and local taxes. These evils " have in- 
creased, are increasing, and ought to be diminished." Let there 
be reform as to all of them. Especially let the people of all 
parties insist that the parent evil — long legislative sessions — shall 
be reformed altogether. Let the bad precedent of long sessions, 
set by the last legislature, be condemned, and the practice of 
short sessions established. With the average rate of taxation 
in the cities and large towns of the State — nearly three per 
cent. — legitimate business and industry can not continue to 
thrive, if the rate of taxation continues to increase. With the 
rates of interest for public debts ranging from seven and three- 
tenths per cent, to eight per cent., the reckless increase of such 
debts must stop, or will seriously affect the prosperity of the 
State. These are subjects which deserve, and which, I trust, will 
receive, the profound attention of the people in the pending can- 
vass. 

It is said that one of the ablest Democratic, members of the 
last legislature declared at its close that "enough had been done 
to keep the Democratic party out of power in Ohio for twenty 
years." Let the Republican press and the Republican speakers 
see to it that the history of the acts of that body bo spread fully 
before the people, and 1 entertain no doubt that the declaration 
will be substantially made good. 

It is probable that the discussions of the present canvass will 
turn more upon State legislation and less upon National affairs 
than those of any year since 1861. Neither senators nor repre- 
sentatives in Congress are to be chosen. But it is an important 
State election, and will be regarded as having a bearing on Na- 
tional politics. The Republicans of Ohio heartily approve of the 
principles of General Grant's inaugural message, and are grati- 
fied by the manner in which ho is dealing with the leading ques- 
tions of the first threo months of his administration. 

Under President Johnson, Secretary McCulloch hoarded mill- 



228 LIFE OP RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

ions of gold, to enable him to maintain a wretched rivalry with 
the gold gamblers of New York city. The Nation was defrauded 
of its just dues, and the National debt increased from November 
1, 1867, to November 1, 1868, $35,625,102.82. General Grant be- 
gan his financial policy by revoking his predecessor's pardons of 
revenue robbers, and by cutting down expenses in all directions; 
and Secretary Boutwell disposes of surplus gold in the purchase 
of interest-bearing bonds to the amount of two millions a week, 
and in his first quarter reduces the National debt more than 
twenty millions of dollars. 

The two Democratic Johnsons, Andrew and Reverdy, furnished 
their ideas of a foreign policy in the Johnson-Clai'endon treaty. 
They undertook to settle the American claims against England 
on account of the Alabama outrage by the award of a Commis- 
sion, one-half of whose members were to be chosen by England 
and the other half by the United States; and, in case of a disa- 
greement, an umpire was to be chosen by lot. That is to say, a 
great National controversy, involving grave questions of interna- 
tional law, and claims of undoubted validity, amounting to mill- 
ions of money, was to be decided by the toss of a copper! The 
administration of General Grant crushed the disgraceful treaty, 
and proposes to deal with England on the principle laid down in 
General Grant's inaugural. The United States will treat all other 
Nations " as equitable law requires individuals to deal with each 
other;" but, "if others depart from this rule in their dealings 
with us, we may be compelled to follow their precedent." 

On the great question of reconstruction, in what a masterly 
way and with what marked success has General Grant's admin- 
istration begun. Congress had fixed its day of adjournment, 
and all plans for reconstructing the three unrepresented States 
had been postponed until next December. At this junction 
< iincral Grant, on the 7th of April last, sent to Congress a special 
message recommending that before its adjournment it take the 
necessary steps for the restoration of the State of Virginia to its 
proper relations to the Union. As the ground of bis recom- 
mendation he said: "I am led to make this recommendation 
from the confident hope and belief that the people of that State 
are now ready to co-operate with the National government in 
bringing it again into such relations to the Union as it ought as 
soon as possible to establish and maintain, and to give to all its 



APPENDIX. 229 






people those equal rights under the law which were asserted in 
the declaration of independence, in the words of one of the 
most illustrious of its sons." 

The message of the president was referred, in the House of 
Eepresentatives, to the Committee on Keconstruction. That 
committee the next day reported a bill for the reconstruction of 
Virginia, and also of Mississippi and Texas. The character of 
the bill sufficiently appears by the first two sections relating to 
Virginia : 

"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President 
of the United States, at such time as he may deem best for tho 
public interest, may submit the constitution which was framed 
by the convention which met in Richmond, Virginia, on Tues- 
day, the 3d day of December, 1807, to the registered voters of 
said State, for ratification or rejection ; and may also submit 
to a separate vote such provisions of said constitution as he may 
deem best. 

"Sec. 2. And he it further enacted, That at the same election 
the voters of said State may vote for and elect members of the 
General Assembly of said State and all the officers of said Stato 
provided for by the said constitution, and for members of Con- 
gress; and the officer commanding the district of Virginia shall 
cause the lists of registered voters of said State to be revised 
and corrected prior to such election, and for that purpose may 
appoint such registrars as he may deem necessary. And said 
election shall be held and returns thereof made in the manner 
provided by the election ordinance adopted by the convention 
which framed said constitution." 

It will be seen that by this bill the people of Virginia were to 
proceed in the work of reconstruction at such time as the presi- 
dent might deem best, and that such reconstruction in all its 
parts was to be on the basis of equal political rights. Tho con- 
stitution to be submitted was framed by a convention, in the 
election of which colored citizens participated, and of which 
colored men were members. The "registered voters" who aro 
to vote on its ratification or rejection, and also for members of 
the General Assembly, for State officers and for members of Con- 
gress, include the colored men of Virginia; and if the constitu- 
tion is adopted, it secures to them equal political rights in that 



230 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

State. The remaining sections of the bill provide for the recon- 
struction of Mississippi and Texas on the same principles, and 
left the time and manner to the discretion of the president. 

This bill was reported to the House of Representatives and 
unanimously agreed upon by a committee, of which four mem- 
bers were Democrats. The most distinguished Democratic rep- 
resentatives of the States of New York and Pennsylvania advo- 
cated its passage. Out of about seventy Democratic members 
of the House, only twenty-five voted against it, and the only 
Democratic members from Ohio who voted on the passage of tho 
bill, voted for it. 

It thus appears that upon the recommendation of General 
Grant even the Democratic party of Ohio, by their representa- 
tives in Congress, voted for equal political rights in Virginia, 
Mississippi, and Texas ! And to-day the great body of the peo- 
ple of those States, Democrats and Conservatives as well as Re- 
publicans, have yielded assent to that great principle. In view 
of these facts I submit that I am fully warranted in saying that 
General Grant has begun the work of reconstruction in a mas- 
terly way and with marked success. 

Again thanking you for the honor you have done me, I repeat, 
in conclusion, what I said two years ago. The people repre- 
sented in this convention mean that the State of Ohio in the 
great progress, '"whose leading object is to elevate the condition 
of men, to lift artificial weights from all shoulders, to clear the 
paths of laudable pursuits for all, and to afford all an unfettered 
start and a fair chance in the race of life," shall tread no more 
steps backward. I shall enter upon my part of the labors of the 
canvass believing that the Union Republican party is battling 
for the right, and with undoubting confidence that the goodness 
of the cause will supply the weakness of its advocates, and com- 
mand in tho result that triumphant success which it deserves. 



APPENDIX. 231 



Speech of General R. B. Hayes, delivered at Zancs- 
ville, Ohio, Thursday, August 24, 1871. 

The change of principles which a majority of the late Demo- 
cratic State Convention at Columbus decided to make, commonly 
called the new departure, lends to the pending political contest 
in Ohio its chief interest. Indeed, there is no other salient fea- 
ture in the Democratic platform. Resolutions in the usual form 
were adopted on several other political topics; but the main dis- 
cussion, and the absorbing interest of the convention, was on the 
question of accepting as a finality the series of Republican meas- 
ures which is generally regarded as the natural and legitimate 
result of the overthrow of the rebellion, and which is embodied 
in the last three amendments to the constitution. 

Certain influential Democratic leaders in Ohio had become sat- 
isfied by the repeated defeats of their party that no considerable 
number of Republicans would ever aid the Democratic party to 
obtain power until it fully and explicitly accepted in good faith, 
as a final settlement of the questions involved, the leading Re- 
publican measures resulting from the war. They were convinced 
that Republicans generally regarded these measures of such vital 
importance that, until they were irrevocably established, other 
and minor questions would not be allowed to divide that great 
body of patriotic people who rallied together in support of the 
government during its struggle for existence. The important 
principles which Republicans claim should be accepted as settled 
are: 

1. That the National power is the Supremo power of the land, 
and that the doctrine that the States are in any proper sense 
sovereign, including as it does the right of nullification and se- 
cession, is no longer to be maintained. 

2. That all persons born or naturalized in the United States, 
and subject to their jurisdiction, are citizens thereof, and enti- 
tled to equal rights, civil and political, without regard to race, 
color, or condition. 

3. That the public debt resulting from the war is of binding 
obligation, and must bo fully and honestly paid. 



232 LIFE OP RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

Mr. Vallandigham, with that boldness and energy for which 
he was distinguished, undertook the task of forcing his party to 
take the position required to make success possible in Ohio. In 
this work, he was encouraged, and probably aided, by the coun- 
sel and advice of that other eminent Democratic leader, Chief 
Justice Chase. The first authentic announcement of the new 
movement in Ohio was made by the Montgomery County Demo- 
cratic Convention, held at Dayton, on the 18th day of May last. 
The speech and resolutions of Mr. Vallandigham in that bocty 
contained much sound Republicanism. He still clung to a gen- 
eral assertion of the State rights heresy, but accepted the last 
three constitutional amendments "as a settlement, in fact, of all 
the issues of the war," and "pledged" the Democratic party to 
the faithful and absolute enforcement of the constitution as it 
now is, "so as to secure equal rights to all persons, without dis- 
tinction of race, color, or condition." On the subject of the Na- 
tional debt, and of currency, he was equally explicit. Tie de- 
clared " in favor of the payment of the public debt at the earliest 
practicable moment consistent with moderate taxation; that 
specie is the basis of all sound currency; and that true policy 
requires a speedy return to that basis as soon as practicable with- 
out distress to the debtor class of people." 

Surely, here was a long stride away from the Democracy of the 
last ten years, and toward wholesome Republican ideas. If a 
Democratic victory could be gained by adopting Republican 
principles, the framer of the Dayton platform was not lacking in 
political sagacity. Unfortunately for the success of the scheme, 
no Ohio Democrat of conspicuous position, except Mr. Chase, is 
known to have approved Mr- Vallandigliam's resolutions as a 
wholo. The chief justice wrote to Mr. Vallandigham the well- 
known letter of May 20, in which ho warmly congratulated him 
on the movement which was to return " the Democratic party to 
its ancient platform of progress and reform." 

This was perfectly consistent with the previous opinions and 
public conduct of Mr. Chase. Ho had supported the three 
amendments to the constitution, and notwithstanding the cen- 
sure of his Democratic associates, he had been signally active 
and influential in procuring tho ratification by Ohio of the fif- 
teenth amendment. In addition to this, he was probably the 
only prominent Western Democrat who was for the payment ol' 



APPENDIX. 233 



the public debt in coin, and in favor of a speedy return to specie 
payments. 

When the convention assembled, &h the first of June, neither 
the talents and energy of Mr. Vallandigham nor the great name 
and authority of the chief justice were sufficient to carry through, 
in all its parts, the Dayton progi'amme. The financial resolu- 
tions were stricken out and the oft-defeated greenback theory, 
slightly modified, was inserted in its place. Other important 
paragraphs of Mr. Vallandigham were also omitted, in which 
" secession, slavery, inequality before the law, and political ine- 
quality" were described as "belonging to tho dead past" and 
" buried out of sight." This left as the new departure two reso- 
lutions, which were adopted only after strong opposition. 

"1. Resolved, by the Democracy of Ohio, That denouncing the ex- 
traordinary means by which they were brought about, we recog- 
nize as accomplished facts the three several amendments to the 
constitution, recently adopted, and regard the same as no longer 
political issues before the country. 

"2. . . . The Democratic party pledges itself to the full, 
faithful, and absolute enforcement of the constitution as it now 
is, so as to secure equal rights to all persons under it, without 
distinction of race, color, or condition." 

The Democratic managers claim that by this movement they 
have taken such a position that, at least equally with the Repub- 
licans, they are entitled to the confidence and support of the 
early and earnest friends of the principles of the three recent 
constitutional amendments. They claim at the same time, in 
the same breath, that they are entitled also to tho confidence of. 
the Democratic people whom they have hitherto taught that tho 
amendments were ratified by force and fraud ; that they are rev- 
olutionary and void, and that they are a dangerous departure 
from the principles of the fathers of the republic, and destruo-. 
tive of all good government. 

Now, the important question presented is, whether it is safe 
and wise to trust these amendments for interpretation, construc- 
tion, and execution to the party which, from first to last, has 
fiercely opposed them. The safe rule is, if you want a law fairly 
and faithfully administered, intrust power only to its friends. 
It will rarely have a fair trial at the hands of its enemies. These 
amendments are no exception to this rule. 



234 LIFE OP RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

What the country most needs, and what good citizens most 
desire in regard to these great measures is peace — repose. They 
wish to be able to rest conMently in the belief that they are to 
be enforced and obeyed. They do not want them overthrown 
by revolutionary violence or defeated by fraud. They do not 
wish them repealed by constitutional amendments, abrogated by 
judicial construction, nullified by unfriendly legislation, State 
or National, or left a dead letter by non-action on the part of 
law-makers or executive officers. Has the time come when the 
country can afford to trust the Democratic party on these ques- 
tions? Consider the facts. 

The new departure is by no means generally accepted by the 
Democratic party, and where accepted the conversion is sudden 
and recent, and against the protest of a large element of sincere 
and inflexible Democrats. 

The only State touching the borders of Ohio which has been 
reliably Democratic for the last five years is Kentucky. She 
sends to Congress an undivided Democratic delegation of two 
senators and nine representatives. At the late election, notwith- 
standing the heroic efforts of her Kepublicans under the splen- 
did leadership of General Harlan, the Democratic organs are 
able to rejoice that they still hold the State by from thirty to 
forty thousand majority. Where did the Democrats of Ken- 
tucky, in their canvass, stand on the new departure ? They 
marched in the old Democratic path. They turned no back 
somersault to catch Eepublican votes. On the very day that the 
Ohio Democracy wore wrangling in convention over the bitter 
dose, Governor Leslie, addressing the Democracy of Lewis county, 
said : "As to the new amendments, I am out and out opposed to 
them. I care not who in Indiana, Ohio, or elsewhere may be for 
them. Those amendments were engrafted upon the constitution 
of the country, and proclaimed to the country as part and par- 
cel of the constitution by force and by fraud, and not in the le- 
gitimate way laid down in the constitution. Ten States of this 
Union wero tied hand and foot, and bayonets were presented to 
their breasts to make them consent against their will to the pas- 
sago of these amendments. The procuring of these amendments 
was a fraud upon this people, and upon the people of the whole 
United Statos, and having been thus obtained, I hold that they 



APPENDIX. 235 



ought to be repealed. There may be some Democrats who are 
not for their repeal, but the great body of our party is for it." 

The Democratic candidate for lieutenant-governor, Mr. Carlisle, 
was equally decided. Said he: "In the first place, I do not 
think that the resolution passed by the Ohio Democracy, declar- 
ing that these constitutional amendments are no longer political 
issues before the country, will, have the effect which they appear 
to have supposed it would. 

"Instead of withdrawing them as subjects of political discus- 
sion, it will give them far more prominenco than they ever had 
heretofore, and they will be confronted with them throughout 
the entire canvass. The only way in which any question can be 
withdrawn from the arena of political discussion is for both par- 
ties to ignore it altogether. 

" This can not be done as to these amendments, because they 
present real living issues, in which the people feel a very deep 
interest. They are not dead issues, and politicians can not kill 
them by resolutions. The Ohio Democrats seem to recognize 
this to some extent at least, for they have simply attempted to 
turn the discussion away from the validity and merits of the 
amendments themselves to the question of their construction. 
In this I think they have made a grievous mistake." 

In Indiana, the last authoritative Democratic utterance on this 
subject, was the passage, in January last, by the Senate of that 
State, of tho following resolution, offered by Mr. Hughes, every 
Democrat supporting it: 

"Resolved, That Congress has no lawful power derived from the 
constitution of the United States, nor from any other source 
whatever, to require any State of the Union to ratify an amend- 
ment proposed to the constitution of the United States as a con- 
dition precedent to representation in Congress ; that all such 
acts of ratification are null and void, and the votes so obtained 
ought not to be counted to affect the rights of the people and 
the States of the whole ,Umo n i and that the State of Indiana 
protests and solemnly declares that the so-called fifteenth amend- 
ment is not this day, nor never has been in law, a part of the 
constitution of the United States." 

It is not necessary to go to neighboring States for Democratic 
authorities, to show how far the new departure is from modern 
Democracy. 



236 LIFE OP RUTHERFORD D. IIAYES. 

Wh'en this question was last debated before the people of Ohio, 
the Democratic position on the principle of the fifteenth amend- 
ment, and on its constitutional validity, if declared adopted, was 
thus stated : 

Speaking of the principle of the amendment, Judge Thurman 
said: "I tell you it is only the entering wedge that will destroy 
all intelligent suffrage in this country, and turn our country 
from an intelligent white man's government into one of the most 
corrupt mongrel governments in the world." 

On its validity, if declared adopted, General Ward said: " Fel- 
low-citizens of Ohio, I boldly assert that the States of this Union 
have always had, both before and since the adoption of the con- 
stitution of the United States, entire sovereignty over the whole 
subject of suffrage in all its relations and bearings. Ohio has 
that sovereignty now, and it can not be taken from her without 
her consent, even by all the other States combined, except by 
revolutionary usurpation. The right to regulate suffrage as to 
the organization of its own government, and the election of of- 
ficers under it, is an inalienable attribute of sovereignty, which 
the State could not surrender without surrendering its sovereign 
existence as a State. To take from Ohio the power of determin- 
ing who shall exercise the right of suffrage is not an amendment 
of the constitution, but a revolutionary usurpation by the other 
States, in no wise constitutionally binding upon her sovereignty 
as a State." 

These opinions are still largely prevalent in the Democratic 
party. "When a new departure was announced at Dayton, the 
leading organ of the party in this State said: 

"There arc matters in the Montgomery county resolutions 
which, it is very safe to say, will not receive the approval of tho 
State convention, and which should not receive its indorsement. 
They have faults of omission and commission. They evince a 
desire to sail with the wind, and as near the water as possible 
without getting wet. The Democracy everywhere believe that 
the constitution was altered by fraud and force, and do not in- 
tend to be mealy-mouthed in their expression of tho outrage, 
whatever they may agree upon as to how the amendments should 
bo treated in the future, for the sake of saving, if possible, what 
is left of constitutional liberty." 

After the schemo was adopted in convention, the common 



APPENDIX. 237 



sentiment was well expressed by the editor who said that " the 
platform was made for present use, and is marked with the taint 
of insincerity." 

The speeches of Colonel McCook and other Democratic gen- 
tlemen exhibit, when carefully read, clearly enough the charac- 
ter of the new departure. 

In accepting his nomination, Colonel McCook said : " Let me 
speak now upon the fifteenth amendment, which confers the 
right of suffrage upon the blacks. It was no legitimate conse- 
quence of the war ; it was no legitimate consequence of seces- 
sion; but it was passed in the exigency of a political party, that 
they might have control as much in Ohio as in those States in 
the South. I opposed it, as I did the fourteenth, from the be- 
ginning, and I have no regrets over that opposition. But now 
a word more upon it. If it contained nothing but this provision 
for suffrage there would be but little objection in it; but it con- 
tains a provision intended to confer power upon Congress which 
is dangerous to the liberties of the country, and the dangers can 
only be avoided by having Democratic Congresses in the future, 
who will trust no power to the executive which bears the purse 
and sword to interfere with our elections." 

When interrogated on this subject at Chardon, he said : " When 
he received the nomination he had said that no black man who 
had received the right to vote under the 15th amendment ever 
could have it taken away. Repealing the 15th amendment would 
not take it away; that amendment is no more sacred, but just 
as sacred as any other part of the constitution; but repealing it 
could not take away a right." He was asked as to the 13th, 
14th, and 15th amendments : " Do you regard them as in the same 
sense and to the same extent parts of the constitution as other 
portions?" He answered : " Yes, certainly. Can not men see 
the difference between opposing the adoption of a measure and 
yielding when it has been adopted, and opposition has become 
useless?" He was asked: "Are these amendments never again 
to become political questions ? " "I have no authority or power 
to answer such a question. How can I answer as to all the fu- 
ture ? How can I tell what the Democracy of New York or any 
other State may do ? But how can they become political ques- 
tions, now that they are acquiesced in by almost the entire peo- 
ple of the country?" 



238 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

Mr. Hubbard, tbe chairman of Colonel McCook's first meeting, 
said: "The Democrats did not dispute that this amendment, 
which was adopted by constitutional forms,'was valid ; but, while 
accepting it, call it a ' new departure.' If you please, we don't 
surrender the right to make such returns to the old constitution 
as we may deem expedient. It is a future question that we are 
not bound to discuss." 

The gentleman who has the second place on the Democratic 
ticket, Mr. Huut, says: " There is no reasoning, and certainly no 
circumstance, which can give the 13th amendment more binding 
force than either of the other two amendments. If the 13th amend- 
ment abolished slavery, then the title to vote under the 15th 
amendment is as perfect as the title to liberty. The fact that 
they have been declared a part of the constitution does not pre- 
clude any legitimate discussion as to their expediency. Proper 
action will never be barred, for the statute of limitation will run 
with the constitution itself. Experience may teach the neces- 
sity of a change in any provision of the organic law, and any 
legislation to be permanent must conform to the living sentiment 
of the people." 

These paragraphs furnish no adequate reply to the questions 
which an intelligent and earnest Republican, who believes in 
the wisdom and value of the amendments, would put to these 
distinguished gentlemen, when they ask him for his vote. Ho 
would ask: " If the Democratic party shall obtain the control- 
ling power in the general government, in its several departments, 
executive, legislative, and judicial, and in the State governments, 
what would it do? Would it faithfully execute these amend- 
ments, or would it not rather use its power to get rid of them — 
either by constitutional amendment, by judicial decision, by 
unfriendly legislation, or by a failure or refusal to legislate?" 
Before tho "new departure" can gain Republican votes, its 
friends must answer satisfactorily these questions. The speeches 
I have quoted fail to furnish such answers. Colonel McCook 
objects to the 15th amendment, because "it contains a provision 
intended to confer power upon Congress which is dangerous to 
tin; liberties of tho country." Now, what is this dangerous pro- 
vision ? It reads: "Section 2. The Congress shall have power to 
enforce this article by appropriate legislation." Each of the 
three recent amendments contains a similar provision. Without 



APPENDIX. 239 



this provision, they would be inoperative in more than half of 
the late rebel States. The complaints made of these provisions 
warn us that in Democratic hands the legislation required to 
give force and effect to these provisions would be denied. 

But the most significant part of these speeches are the passages 
which refer to the repeal of the amendments. Mr. Hubbard 
said : " We do n't surrender the right to make such returns to 
the old constitution as we may deem expedient. It is a future 
question that we are not bound to discuss." Colonel McCook 
says: " How can I answer for all the future? How can I tell 
what the Democracy of New York or any other State may do ? " 
Mr. Hunt says: " The fact that they have been declared a part 
of the constitution does not preclude any legitimate discussion 
as to their expediency. Proper action will never be barred." 
The meaning of all this is that the Democratic party will ac- 
quiesce in the amendments while it is out of power. Whether 
or not it will try to repeal them when it gets power is a question 
of the future which they are not bound to discuss. Or as an- 
other distinguished gentleman has it, this question is " beyond 
the range of profitable discussion." In reply to these gentle- 
men, the well-informed Republican citizen when asked to vote 
for the new departure, is very likely to adopt their own phrase- 
ology, and to say, Whether I shall vote your ticket or not is a 
question of the future which it is not now proper to discuss — "it 
is beyond the range of profitable discussion;" and if he has the 
Democratic veneration for Tammany hall, he will say with Col- 
onel McCook, " How can I tell what the Democracy of New York 
may do?" 

Notwithstanding the decision of the late convention, it is 
probable that the real sentiment of the Democracy of Ohio is 
truly stated by the Butler county Democrat : 

" Our position then, is, that while we regard the so-called 
amendments as gross usurpation and base frauds — not a part of 
the Federal constitution de facto nor de jure — and, therefore, acts 
which are void, we will abide by them until a majority of the 
people of the States united shall, at the polls, put men in power 
who shall hold them to be null and of no effect. We adhere 
strictly, on this point, to the second resolution of Hon. L. D. 
Campbell, adopted at the Democratic convention held in this 



240 LIFE OP RUTIIERFORD B. HAYES. 

county last May ; and to refresh the minds of our readers we re- 
produce it here : 

" 2. That now, as heretofore, we are opposed to all lawlessness 
and disorder, and for maintaining the supremacy of the consti- 
tution and laws as the only certain means of public safety, and 
will abide by all their provisions until the same shall be amended, 
abrogated, or repealed by the lawfully constituted authorities." 

The new departure has certainly very little claim to the sup- 
port of Republican citizens. What are its claims on honest 
Democrats ? 

Colonel McCook, to make the new departure palatable to his 
Democratic supporters, tells them that a repeal of the fifteenth 
amendment would fail of its object. That the right to vote, once 
exercised by the black man, can not be taken away. Is this 
sound either in law or logic ? By the fifteenth amendment no 
State can deny the right to vote to any citizens on account of 
race or color. Suppose that amendment was repealed ; what 
would prevent Kentucky from denying suffrage to colored citi- 
zens ? Plainly nothing. And in case of such repeal it is prob- 
able that in less than ninety days thereafter every Democratic 
State would deny suffrage to colored citizens, and the great body 
of Democratic voters would heartily applaud that result. The 
truth is, no sound argument can be made, showing or tending to 
show that the new departure is consistent with the Democratic 
record. Hitherto Democracy has taught that, as a question of 
law, the amendments were made by force and fraud, and are 
therefore void; that, as a question of principles, this is a white- 
man's government, and that to confer suffrage on the colored 
races — on the African or Chinaman — would change the nature 
of the government and speedily destroy it. Now the new de- 
parture demands that Democrats shall accept the amendments 
as valid, and shall take a pledge " to secure equal rights to all 
persons, without distinction of race, color, or condition." Sin- 
cere Democrats will find it very difficult to take that pledge, un- 
less they are now convinced that their whole political life has 
been a great mistake. 

When an individual changes his political principles — turns his 
coat merely to catch votes — he is generally thought to be un- 
worthy of support. I entertain no doubt that the people of Ohio, 



APPENDIX. 241 



at tho approaching election, will, upon that principle, by a largo 
majority, condemn the Democratic party for its bold attempt to 
catch Republican votes by the new departure. 



Speech of General R. B. Hayes, delivered at Marion^ 
Lawrence County, Ohio, July 31, 1875. 

Fellow-citizens of Lawrence County : 

It is a gratification for which I wish to make my acknowledg- 
ments to the Republican committee of this county, to have the 
privilege of beginning, in behalf of tho Republicans of Ohio, tho 
oral discussions of this important political canvass before the 
people of Lawrence county. Although my residence is separated 
from yours by the whole breadth of the State, we are not 
strangers. We have met before on similar occasions, and some 
of you were my comrades in the Union army during a considera- 
ble part of tho great civil conflict which ended ten years ago. 
Those who had the honor and tho happiness to serve together 
during that memorable struggle are not likely to forget each 
other. We shall forever regard those four years as the most in- 
teresting period of our lives. 

The great majority of the people of Lawrence county, citizens 
as well as soldiers, have also good reason to recall the events and 
scenes of that contest with satisfaction and pride. 

The official records of the State show bow well Lawrence 
county performed her part in the war for the Union. From tho 
beginning to the end, with the ballot at homo and with the mus- 
ket in the field, this county stood among the foremost of all tho 
communities in the United States in devotion to the good cause. 
And since the Nation's triumph, Lawrence county, sooner or 
later, but never too late to rejoice in the final and decisive vic- 
tory, has supported every measure required to secure the legiti- 
mate results of that triumph. You have done your part forever 
to set at rest the great questions of the past. It is settled that 



242 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

the United States constitute a Nation, and that their government 
possesses ample power to maintain its authority over every part of 
its territory against all opposers. It is settled that no man under 
the American flag shall be a slave. It is settled that all men 
born or naturalized in the United States and within its jurisdic- 
tion shall be citizens thereof, and have equal civil and political 
rights. It is settled that the debt contracted to save the Nation 
is sacred, and shall be honestly paid. You may well be congratu- 
lated that on all of these questions you fought and voted on the 
right side. 

Fortunately, there is still further cause for congratulation. 
Our adversaries, who were on the wrong side of all of these ques- 
tions, and who opposed us on all of them to the very last, are 
now compelled to be silent in their platform on every one of 
them. Not a single one of their fourteen resolutions raises any 
question on any of these long-contested subjects. It is not 
strange that they are silent. I do not choose on this occasion to 
recall the predictions of evil which they so confidently made 
when discussing the measures to which I have referred. It is 
enough for my present purpose to point to the grand results. 
When the Republican party, with Abraham Lincoln as president, 
received the government from the hands of the Democratic party, 
fifteen years ago, the Union of the fathers was destroyed. A 
hostile Nation, dedicated to perpetual slavery, had been estab- 
lished south of the Potomac, and claimed jurisdiction over one- 
third of the people and territory of the Republic. These Slates 
were "dissevered, discordant, belligerent" — our land was rent 
with civil feud, and ready to be drenched in fraternal blood. 
Now, behold the change ! The Union is re-established on firmer 
foundations than ever .before. Brave men in the South, who 
were then in battle array against us, now stand side by side with 
Union soldiers, with no shadow of discord between them. 
Slavery, which was then an impassable gulf between the hostile 
sections, is now gone ; and good men of the South unite with 
good men of the North in thanking God that it is forever a thing 
of the past. Then there was no freedom of speech or of the press — 
no friendly mingling together of the people of the two sections of 
the country. Now the people of the South receive and greet as 
a fellow-citizen and a friend the vice-president — a citizen of Massa- 



APPENDIX. 243 



chusetts, and an anti-slavery man from his youth ; and Maryland, 
Virginia, and South Carolina send their distinguished sons to 
celebrate with New England the centennial anniversaries of the 
early battles of the Revolution. The men of the North and the 
men of the South are now everywhere coming together in a 
spirit of harmony and friendship which this generation has not 
witnessed before, and which has not existed, until now, since 
Jefferson was startled by that "fire-ball in the night" — the Mis- 
souri question — more than fifty years ago. 

In this era of good feeling and reconciliation a few men of 
morbid temperament, blind to what is passing before them, sti.l 
talk of "bayonets" and "tyranny and cruelty to the South, ' 
and seek in vain to revive the prejudices and passions of the 
past. But there is barely enough of this angry dissent to remind 
us of the terrible scenes through which we have passed, and to 
fill us with gratitude that the house which was divided against 
itself is divided no longer, and that all of its inhabitants now 
have a fair start and an equal chance in the race of life. 

Let us now proceed to the consideration of some of the ques- 
tions which engage the attention of the people of Ohio. Tho 
war which the Democratic party and its doctrines brought upon 
the country left a large debt, heavy taxation, a depreciated cur- 
rency, and an unhealthy condition of business, which resulted 
two years ago in a financial panic and depression, from which 
the country is now slowly recovering. With this condition of 
things the Democratic party in its recent State convention at 
Columbus undertook to deal. 

The most important part — in fact the only part of their plat- 
form in Ohio this year which receives or deserves much attention, 
is that in which is proclaimed a radical departure on the subject 
of money from the teachings of all of tho Democratic fathers. 
This Ohio Democx-atic doctrine inculcates the abandonment of 
gold and silver as a standard of value. Hereafter gold and silver 
are to be used as money only "where respect for the obligation 
of contracts requires payment in coin." The only currency for 
the people is to be paper money, issued directly by the general 
government, " its volume to be made and kept equal to the wants 
of trade," and with no provision whatever for its redemption in 
coin. The Democratic candidate for lieutenant-governor, who 



244 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

opened the canvass for his party, states the money issue substan- 
tially as I have. General Carey, in his Barnesville speech, says: 

" Gold and silver, when used as money, are redeemable in any 
property there is for sale in the Nation ; will pay taxes for any 
debt, public or private. This alone gives them their money 
value. If you had a hundred gold eagles, and you could not 
exchange them for the necessaries of life, they would be trash, 
and you would be glad to exchango them for greenbacks or any- 
thing else that you could use to purchase what you require. 
With an absolute paper money, stamped by the government and 
made a legal tender for all purposes, and its functions as money 
are as perfect as gold or silver can be!" 

This is the financial scheme which the Democratic party asks 
the people of Ohio to approve at the election in October. The 
Republicans accept the issue. Whether considered as a perma- 
nent policy or as an expedient to mitigate present evils we are 
opposed to it. It is without warrant in the constitution, and it 
violates all sound financial principles. 

The objections to an inflated and irredeemable paper currency 
are so many that I do not attempt to state them all. They are 
so obvious and so familiar that I need not elaborately present or 
argue them. All of the mischief which commonly follows in- 
flated and inconvertible paper money may be expected from 
this plan, and in addition it has very dangerous tendencies, 
which are peculiarly its own. An irredeemable and inflated 
paper currency promotes speculation and extravagance, and at 
the same time discourages legitimate business, honest labor, and 
economy. It dries up the true sources of individual and public 
prosperity. Over-trading and fast living always go with it. It 
stimulates the desire to incur debt ; it causes high rates of in- 
terest ; it increases importations from abroad ; it has no fixed 
value; it is liable to frequent and great fluctuations, thereby 
rendering every pecuniary engagement precarious and disturbing 
all existing contracts and expectations; it is the parent of pan- 
ics. Every period of inflation is followed by a loss of confidence, 
a shrinkage of values, depression of business, panics, lack of 
employment, and widespread disaster and distress. The heaviest 
part of the calamity falls on those least able to bear it. The 
wholesale dealer, tho middle-man, and the retailer always en- 



APPENDIX. 245 



deavor to cover the risks of the fickle standard of value by rais- 
ing their prices. But the men of small means and tho laborer 
are thrown out of employment, and want and suffering are liable 
soon to follow. 

When government enters upon the experiment of issuing ir- 
redeemable paper money there can be no fixed limit to its vol- 
ume. Tho amount will depend on the interest of leading poli- 
ticians, on their whims, and on the excitement of the hour. It 
affords such facility for contracting debt that extravagant and 
corrupt government expenditure are the sure result. Under tho 
name of public improvements, the wildest enterprizes, contrived 
for private gain, are undertaken. Indefinite expansion becomes 
the rule, and in the end bankruptcy, ruin, and repudiation. 

During the last few years a great deal has been said about tho 
centralizing tendency of recent events in our history. The in- 
creasing power of the government at Washington has been a 
favorite theme for Democratic declamation. But where, since 
the foundation of the government, has a proposition been seri- 
ously entertained which would confer such monstrous and dan- 
gerous powers on the general government as this inflation scheme 
of the Ohio Democracy ? During the war for the Union, solely 
on the ground of necessity, the government issued the legal 
tender, or greenback currency. But they accompanied it with 
a solemn pledge in the following words of the act of June 30, 
1864: 

" Nor shall the total amount of United States notes issued or 
to be issued ever exceed four hundred millions, and such addi- 
tional sum, not exceeding fifty millions, as may be temporarily 
required for redemption of temporary loans." 

But the Ohio inflationists, in a time of peace, on grounds of 
mere expediency, propose an inconvertible paper currency, with 
its volume limited only by the discretion or caprice of its issu- 
ers, or their judgment as to the wants of trade. The most dis- 
tinguished gentleman whose name is associated with the sub- 
ject once said " the process must be conducted with skill and 
caution, ... by men whose position will enable them to 
guard against any evil," and using a favorite illustration he said, 
" The secretary of the treasury ought to be able to judge. His 
hand is upon the pulse of the country. IIo can feel all the 



240 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

throbbings of the blood in the arteries! He can tell when the 
blood flows too fast and strong, and when the expansion should 
cease." This brings us face to face with the fundamental error 
of this dangerous policy. The trouble is the pulse of tho pa- 
tient will not so often decide the question as the interest of the 
doctor. No man, no government, no Congress is wise enough 
and pure enough to be trusted with this tremenduous power 
over the business, and property, and labor of the country. That 
which concerns so intimately all business should be decided, if 
possible, on business principles, and not be left to depend on the 
exigencies of politics, the interests of party, or the ambition of 
public men. It will not do for property, for business, or for labor 
to be at the mercy of a few political leaders at Washington, 
either in or out of Congress. The best w r ay to prevent it is to 
apply to paper money the old test sanctioned by the experience 
of all Nations — let it bo convertible into coin. If it can respond 
to this test, it will, as nearly as possible, be sound, safe, and 
stable. 

The Republicans of Ohio are in favor of no sudden or 
harsh measures. They do not propose to force resumption by a 
contraction of the currency. They see that the ship is headed 
in the right direction, and they do not wish to lose what has al- 
ready been gained. They are satisfied to leave to the influences 
of time and the inherent energy and resources of the country tho 
work that yet remains to be dono to place our currency at par. 
We believe that what our country now needs to revive business 
and to give employment to labor, is a restoration of confidence. 
We need confidence in tho stability and soundness of the finan- 
cial policy of tho government. That confidence has for many 
months past been slowly but steadily increasing. The Colurabus 
Democratic platform comes in as a disturbing element, and gives 
a severe shock to reviving confidence The country believed, 
and rejoiced to believe, that Senator Thurman expressed the 
sober judgment of Ohio, when he spoke last year in the Senate 
on this subject. The senator said, March 24, 1874 : 

" Never have 1 spoken in favor of that inflation of the cur- 
rency, which, 1 think I see full well, means that there shall never 
be any resumption at all. That is the difference. It is one 
thing to contract the currency, with a view to the resumption of 



ArPEEDix. 247 



specio payment ; it is another thing neither to contract nor en- 
large it, hut let resumption come naturally and as soon as the 
business and production of the country will bring it ahout. But 
it is a very different thing indeed to inflate the currency with a 
view never in all time to redeem it at all. And that is precisely 
what this inflation means. It means demonetizing gold and 
silver in perpetuity, and substituting a currency of irredeemable 
paper, hased wholly and entirely upon government credit, and 
depending upon the opinion and the interests of the members 
of Congress and their hopes of popularity, whether the volume 
of it shall be large or small. That is what this inflation means. 
Sir, I have never said anything in favor of that. I am too old- 
fashioned a Democrat for that. I can not give up the convic- 
tions of a life-time, whether they be popular or unpopular." 
April 6th, when the Senate inflation bill was debated, he said : 
" It simply means that no man of my age shall ever again see 
in this country that kind of currency which the framers of the 
constitution intended should be the currency of the Union ; 
which every sound writer on political economy the world over 
says is the only currency that defrauds no man. It means that 
so long as I live, and possibly long after I shall be laid in the 
grave, this people shall have nothing but an irredeemable 
currency with which to transact their business — that currency 
which has been well described as the most effective invention 
that ever the wit of man devised to fertilize the rich man's field 
by the sweat of the poor man's brow. I will have nothing to do 
with it." 

How great the shock which was given to returning confidence 
by the Democratic action at Columbus abundantly appears by 
the manner in which the platform is received by the Liberal 
and the English and the German Democratic press throughout 
the United States. The Liberal press and the German press, so 
far as I have observed, in the strongest terms condemn the plat- 
form. They speak of it as disturbing confidence, shaking credit, 
and threatening repudiation. A large part of the Democratic 
press of other States is hardly less emphatic. It would be 
strange, indeed, if this were otherwise. In Ohio, less than two 
years ago, the convention which nominated Governor Allen re- 
solved, speaking of the Democratic party, that " it recognizes the 



248 LIFE OP RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

evils of an irredeemable paper currency, but insists that in the 
return to specie payment care should be taken not to seriously 
disturb the business of the country or unjustly injure the debtor 
class." There was no inflation then. Now come the soft-money 
leaders of the Democratic party, and try to persuade the people 
that the promises of the United States should only be redeemed 
by other promises, and that it is sound policy to increase them. 
The credit of the Nation depends on its ability and disposition 
to keep its promises. If it fails to keep them, and suffers them 
to depreciate, its credit is tainted, and it must pay high rates of 
interest on all of its loans. For many years we must be a bor- 
rower in the markets of the world. The interest-bearing debt is 
over seventeen hundred millions of dollars. If we could bor- 
row money at the same rate with some of the great Nations of 
Europe, we could save perhaps two per cent, per annum on this 
sum. Thirty or forty millions a year we are paying on account 
of tainted credit. The more promises to pay an individual is- 
sues, without redeeming them, the worse becomes his credit. It 
is the same with Nations. The legal tender note for five dollars 
is the promise of the United States to pay that sum in the money 
of the world, in coin. No time is fixed for its payment. It is there- 
fore payable on presentation — on demand. It is not paid ; it is past 
due ; and it is depreciated to the extent of twelve per cent. The 
country recognizes the necessities of the situation, and waits, 
and is willing to wait, until the productive business of the coun- 
try enables the government to redeem. But the Columbus finan- 
ciers are not satisfied. They demand the issue of more promises. 
This is inflation. No man can doubt the result. The credit of 
the Nation will inevitably suffer. There will be further depre- 
ciation. A depreciation of ten per cent, diminishes the value 
of the present paper currency from fifty to one hundred 
millions of dollars. Its effect on business would be disastrous 
in the extreme. The present legal tenders have a certain steadi- 
ness, because there is a limit fixed to their amount. Public 
opinion confides in that limit. But let that limit be broken 
down, and all is uncertainty. The authors of this scheme be- 
lieve inflation is a good thing. When this subject was under 
discussion, a few years ago, the Cincinnati Enquirer said " the is- 
sue of two millions dollars of currency would only put it in the 



APPENDIX. 249 



power of each voter to secure $400 for himself and family to 
spend in the course of a life-time. Is there any voter thinks 
that is too much — more than he will want?" This shows what 
the platform means. It means inflation without limit; and in- 
flation is the downward path to repudiation. It means ruin to 
the Nation's credit, and to all individual credit. All the rest of 
the world have the same standard of value. Our promises are 
worthless as currency the moment you pass our boundary line. 
Even in this country, very extensive sections still use the money 
of the world. Texas, the most promising and flourishing State 
of the South, uses coin. California and the other Pacific States 
and Territories do the same. Look at their condition. Texas 
and California are not the least prosperous part of the United 
States. This scheme can not be adopted. The opinion of the 
civilized world is against it. The vast majority of the ablest 
newspapers of the country is against it. The best minds of the 
Democratic party are against it. The last three Democratic can- 
didates for the presidency were against it. The Cerman citizens 
of the United States, so distinguished for industry, for thrift, and 
for soundness of judgment in all practical money affairs, are a 
unit against it. The Republican party is against it. The people 
of Ohio will, I am confident, decide in October to have nothing 
to do with it. 

Since the adoption of the inflation platform at Columbus, a 
great change has taken place in the feelings and views of its 
friends. Then they were confident — perhaps it is not too* much 
to say that they were dictatorial and overbearing toward their 
hard money party associates. There was no doubt as to the in- 
tent and meaning of the ]>latform. Its friends asserted that the 
country needed more money, and more money now. That the 
way to get it was to issue government legal tender notes liber- 
ally. But the storm of criticism and condemnation which burst 
upon the platform from the soundest Democrats in all quarters 
has alarmed its supporters. Many of them have been seized 
with a panic, and are now utterly stampeded and in full retreat. 
They say that they are not for inflation, not for inconvertible 
paper money, and that they never have been. That they are 
hard money men, and always have been. That they look for- 
ward to a return of specie payment, and that it must always be 



250 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

kept in view. Why what did they mean by their platform? 
Did they expect to make money plenty by an issue of more 
coin ? Certainly not. By an issue of more paper redeemable in 
coin ? Certainly not. They expected to issue more legal tender 
notes — notes irredeemable and depreciated. But public opinion 
as shown by the press is so decidedly against them, that Ohio in- 
flationists now begin to desert their own platform. Even Mr. 
Pendleton is solicitous not to be held responsible for the Colum- 
bus scheme. He says, " I speak for myself alone. I do not as- 
sume to speak for the Democratic party. Its convention has 
spoken for it," and proceeds to interpret the platform as if it was 
for hard money. Senator Thurman did not so understand it. 
He thought the hard money men were beaten and felt disap- 
pointed. It now looks as if General Carey might be left almost 
alone before the canvass ends. If Judge Thurman could get 
that convention together again, it is evident that he could now 
in the same body rout the inflationists, horse, foot, and artillery. 
Nothing but a victory in Ohio can put inflation again on its legs. 
Let it be defeated in October, and the friends of a sound and 
honest currency will have a clear field for at least the life of the 
present generation. 

Two years ago, the Democratic party came fully into power in 
Ohio, in the State legislature, and for the first time in twenty 
years, elected the executive of the State. They were also en- 
trusted with the affairs of the leading cities, and a majority of 
the wealthiest and most populous counties in the State. It would 
be profitable in us to inquire how this came about, and what are 
the results. In the course of the canvass it is my purpose to 
phow in detail how unfortunate their management of State af- 
fairs has been. It will appear, on investigation, that the inter- 
ests of the State in the benevolent, penal, and reformatory insti- 
tutions have been sacrificed to the spoils doctrine: how the 
cities, and especially the chief city of the State, has suffered by 
the corruption of its rulers; how public expenditures have been 
increased, until the aggregate of taxation in Ohio, in this time 
of money depression, is vastly larger than ever before; how the 
number of salaried officers was increased ; how the members of 
the legislature were corrupted by bribery, notorious, and shame- 
Less; and how (he dominant party utterly failed to deal with 



APPENDIX. 251 



this corruption as duty .and the good name of the State de- 
manded. Fallacious and deceptive statements have been made 
as to the reduction of the levy for State taxes, and as to the ap- 
propriations. It is enough now to say that the aggregate taxa- 
tion in Ohio in 1874, was over $27,000,000, a larger sum than was 
ever before collected by tax-gatherers in Ohio. 

Altogether the most interesting questions in our State affairs 
are those which relate to the passage, by the last legislature, of 
the Geghan bill and the war which the sectarian wing of the 
Democratic party is now waging against the public schools. In 
the admirable speech made by Judge Taft at the Republican 
State Convention, he sounded the key-note to the canvass on 
this subject. He said " our motto must be universal liberty and 
universal suffrage, secured by universal education." Before we 
discuss these questions, it may be well, in order that there may 
be no excuse for further misrepresentation, to show by whom this 
subject was introduced into politics, and to state explicitly that 
we attack no sect and no man, either Protestant or Jew, Catho- 
lic or Unbeliever, on account of his conscientious convictions in 
regard to religion. Who began the agitation of this subject? 
Why is it agitated? All parties have taken hold of it. The 
Democratic party in their State convention make it the topic 
of their longest resolution. In their platform they gave 
it more space than to any other subject except the currency. 
Many of the Democratic county conventions also took action 
upon it. 

The Republican State Convention passed resolutions on the 
question. It is stated that it was considered in about forty Re- 
publican county conventions. The State Teachers' Association, 
at their last meeting, passed unanimously the following resolu- 
tion. Mr. Tappan, from the Committee on Resolutions, reported 
the following : 

"Resolved, That we are in favor of a free, impartial, and unsec- 
tarian education to every child in the State, and that any divis- 
ion of the school fund or appropriation .of any part thereof to 
any religious or private school would be injurious to education 
and the best interests of the church." 

An able address by the Rev. Dr. Jeffers, of Cleveland, showing 



252 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

tho " perils which threaten our public schools," was emphatically 
applauded by that intelligent body of citizens. 

The assemblies of the different religious denominations in the 
State, which have recently been held, have generally, and I 
think without exception, passed similar resolutions. If blame 
is to attach to all who consider and discuss this question before 
the public, we have had a very large body of offenders. But I 
have not named all who are engaged in it. I have not named 
those who began it; those who for years have kept it up; those 
who in the press, on the platform, in the pulpit, in legislative 
bodies, in city councils, and in school boards, now unceasingly agi- 
tate the question. Everybody knows who they are; everybody 
knows that the sectarian wing of the Democratic party began 
this agitation, and that it is bent on the destruction of our free 
schools. If Republicans acting on the defensive discuss the 
subject, and express the opinion that the Democratic party can 't 
safely be trusted, they are denounced in unmeasured terms. 
General Carey calls them "political knaves" and "fools" and 
" bigots." But it is very significant that no Democratic speaker 
denounces those who began the agitation. All their epithets 
arc leveled at the men who are on the right side of the question. 
Agitation on the wrong side — agitation against the schools may 
go on. It meets no condemnation from leading Democratic can- 
didates and speakers. The reason is plain. Those who mean 
to destroy the school system constitute a formidable part of the 
Democratic party, without whose support that party, as the leg- 
islature was told last spring, can not carry the county, the city, 
nor the State. 

The sectarian agitation against the public schools was begun 
many years ago. During the last few years, it has steadily and 
rapidly increased, and has been encouraged by various indica- 
tions of possible success. It extends to all of the States where 
schools at the common expense have been long established. Its 
triumphs are mainly in the large towns and cities. It has al- 
ready divided the schools, and in a considerable degree impaired 
and limited their usefulness. The glory of the American system 
of education has been that it was so cheap that the humblest 
citizen could afford to give his children its advantages, and so 
good that the man of wealth could nowhere provide lor his chil 



APrENDix. 253 



dren anything better. This gave the system its most conspicu- 
ous merit. It made it a Republican system. The young of all 
conditions of life are brought, together and educated on terms 
of perfect equality. The tendency of this is to assimilate and 
to fuse together the various elements of our population, to pro- 
mote unity, harmony, and general good will in our American so- 
ciety. But the enemies of the American system have begun the 
work of destroying it. They have forced away from the public 
schools, in many towns and cities, one-third or one-fourth of their 
pupils and sent them to schools which it is safe to say are no 
whit superior to those they have left. These youth are thus de- 
prived of the associations and the education in practical Repub- 
licanism and American sentiments which they peculiarly need. 
Nobody questions their constitutional and legal right to do this, 
and to do it by denouncing the public schools. Sectarians have 
a lawful right to say that these schools are "a relict of pagan- 
ism — that they are Godless," and that ' ' the secular school sys- 
tem is a social cancer." But when having thus succeeded in di- 
viding the schools, they make that a ground for abolishing 
school taxation, dividing the school fund, or otherwise destroy- 
ing the system, it is time that its friends should rise up in its 
defense. 

We all agree that neither the government nor political parties 
ought to interfere with religious sects. It is equally true that 
religious sects ought not to interfere with the government or 
with political parties. We believe that the cause of good gov- 
ernment and the cause of religion both suffer by all such inter- 
ference. But if Sectarians make demands for legislation of 
political parties, and threaten that party with opposition at the 
elections in case the required enactments are not passed, and if 
the political party yields to such threats, then those threats, 
those demands, and that action of the political party become a 
legitimate subject of political discussion, and the sectarians who 
thus interfere with the legislation of the State are alone respon- 
sible for the agitation which follows. 

And now a few words as to the action of the last legislature on 
this subject. After an examination of the Geghan bill, we shall 
pex'haps come to the conclusion that in itself it is not of great 
importance. I would not undervalue the conscientious scruples 



254 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

on the subject of religion of a convict in the penitentiary, or of 
any unfortunate person in any State institution. But the pro- 
vision of the constitution of the State covers the whole ground. 
It needs no awkwardly framed statute of doubtful meaning, like 
the Geghan bill, to accomplish the object of the organic law. 
The old constitution of 1802, and the constitution now in force, 
of 1851, are substantially alike. Both declare (I quote section 
7, article 1, constitution of 1851) : 

" All men bave a natural and indefeasible right to worship Al- 
mighty God according to the dictates of their own conscience. 
No person shall be compelled to attend, erect, or support any 
place of worship, or maintain any form of worship against his 
consent ; and no preference shall be given by law to any relig- 
ious society ; nor shall any interference with the right of con- 
science be permitted." 

If the Geghan bill is merely a reenactment of this part of the 
bill of rights, it is a work of supererogation, and it is not strange 
that the legislature did not, when it was introduced, favor 
its passage. The author of the bill wrote, " the members 
claim that such a bill is not needed." The same opinion pre- 
vails in New Jersey, where a similar bill is said to have been de- 
feated by a vote of three to one. But the sectarians of Ohio were 
resolved on the passage of this bill. Mr. Geghan, its author, 
wrote to Mr. Murphy, of Cincinnati : 

" We have a prior claim upon the Democratic party. The ele- 
ments composing the Democratic party in Ohio to-day are made 
up of Irish and German catholics, and they have always been 
loyal and faithful to the interests of the party. Hence the 
party is under obligations to us, and we have a perfect right to 
demand of them, as a party, inasmuch as they arc in control of 
the State legislature and State government, and were by both 
our means and votes placed where they are to-day, that they 
should, as a party, redress our grievances." 

The organ of the friends of the bill published this letter, and 
among other things said : 

" The political party with which nine-tenths of the Catholic 
voters affiliate on account of past services that they will never 
forget, now controls the State. Withdraw the support which 
Catholics havo given to it and it will fall in this city, county, and 



APPENDIX. 25( 



State, as speedily as it has risen to its long lost position and 
power. That party is now on trial. Mr. Geghan's bill will test 
the sincerity of its professions." 

That threat was effectual. The bill was passed, and the secta- 
rian organ therefore said : 

" The unbroken solid vote of the Catholic citizens of the Stale 
will be given to the Democracy at the fall election." 

In regard to those who voted against the bill, it said : " They 
have dug their political grave ; it will not be our fault if they do 
not fill it. When any of them appear again in the political 
arena, we will put upon them a brand that every Catholic citi- 
zen will understand." No defense of this conduct of the last 
legislature has yet been attempted. The facts are beyond dis- 
pute. This is the first example of open and successful sectarian 
interference with legislation in Ohio. If the people are wise, 
they will give it such a rebuke in October that for many years, 
at least, it will be the last. 

But it is claimed that the schools are in no danger. Now that 
public attention is aroused to the importance of the subject, it 
is probable that in Ohio they are safe. But their safety depends 
on the rebuke which the people shall give to the party which 
yielded last spring at Columbus to the threats of their enemies. 
It is said that no political party "desires the destruction of the 
schools." I reply, no political party " desired " the passage of 
the Geghan bill; but the power which hates the schools passed 
the bill. The sectarian wing of the Democratic party rules that 
party to-day in the great commercial metropolis of the Nation. 
It holds the balance of power in many of the large cities of the 
country. Without its votes, the Democratic party would lose 
every large city and county in Ohio and every Northern State. 
In the presidential canvass of 18G4, it was claimed that General 
McClellan was as good a Union man as Abraham Lincoln, and 
that he was as much opposed to the rebellion. An eminent citi- 
zen of this State replied : "I learn from my adversaries. Who 
do the enemies of the Union want elected ? The man they are 
for, I am against." So I would say to the friends of the public 
schools : "How do the enemies of universal education vote?" 
If the enemies of the free schools give their " unbroken, solid 



256 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

vote " to the Democratic ticket, the friends of the schools will 
make no mistake if they vote the Republican ticket. 

The Republicans enter upon this important canvass with many 
advantages. Their adversaries are loaded down with the record 
of the last legislature. Democratic legislatures have not been 
fortunate in Ohio. Since the present division of 2>arties, twenty 
years ago, no Democratic legislature has ever failed to bring de- 
feat to its party. The people of Ohio have never been willing 
to venture on the experiment of two Democratic legislatures in 
succession. The Democratic inflation platform offends German 
Democrats, has driven off the Liberal Republicans, and is ac- 
cepted by very few old-fashioned Democrats in its true intent 
and meaning. The Republicans are out of power in the cities 
and in the State, and are everywhere taking the offensive. If 
Democrats assail them on account of some affair of years ago, 
or in a distant Southern State, or at Washington, Republicans 
reply by pointing to what Democrats are now doing in their own 
cities, or have just done in the last legislature. The materials 
for such retort are abundant and ready at hand. The Republi- 
cans are embarrassed by no entangling alliance with the secta- 
rian enemies of the public schools, and they have yielded to no 
sectarian demands or dictation in public affairs. We rejoice to 
see indications of an active canvass and a large vote at the elec- 
tion. Such a canvass and such a vote in Ohio never yet re- 
sulted in a Democratic victory. Our motto is honest money 
for all and free schools for all. There should be no inflation 
which will destroy the one, and no sectarian interference which 
will destroy the other. 



Speech of Governor Hayes to his neighbors at Fremont, 
delivered Jane 25, 1876. 

Mr. Mayor, Fellow- Citizens, Friends, and Neighbors : 

I need not attempt to express the emotions I feel at the re- 
ception which the people of Fremont and this county have given 
me to-night. Under any circumstances, an assemblage of this 



APPENDIX. 257 



sort at my home to welcome me would touch me, would excite 
the warmest emotions of gratitude; but what gives to this its 
distinctive character is the fact that those who are prominent in 
welcoming me home, I know, in the past, have not voted with 
me or for me, and they do not intend in the future to vote with 
me or for me. It is simply that, coming to my homo, they re- 
joice that Ohio, that Sandusky county, that the town of Fre- 
mont has received at that National Convention high honor, 
and I thank you, Democrats, fellow-citizens, Independents, and 
Republicans, for this spontaneous and enthusiastic reception. 

I trust that in the course of events the time will never come 
that you will have cause to regret what you do to-night. It is a 
very great responsibility that has been placed upon me — to be a 
representative of a party embracing twenty millions of people — 
a responsibility which I know I am not ecmal to. I understand 
very well that it was not by reason of ability or talents that I 
was chosen. But that which does rejoice me is that here, where 
I have been known from my childhood, there are those that 
come and rejoice at the result. 

I trust, my friends, that as I run along in this desultory way 
— for you well know that since I learned that I was to be here 
to-night, the multitude of letters, and visits, and telegrams re- 
quiring attention have given me no time to prepare for a recep- 
tion like this — you must, therefore, put up with hastily-formed 
sentences, very unfitly representing the sentiments appropriate 
to the occasion. Let me, if I may do it without too much egotism, 
recur to the history of my connection with Fremont. P'orty-two 
years ago my uncle, Sardis Birchard, brought me to this place, 
and I rejoice, my friends, in the good taste and good feeling 
which have placed his portrait here to-night. He, having 
adopted me as his child, brought me to Fremont. I recollect 
well the appearance of the then Lower Sandusky, consisting of 
a few wooden buildings scattered along the river, with little 
paint on them, and these trees none of them grown, the old 
fort still having some of its earthworks remaining, so that it 
could be easily traced. A pleasant village this was for a boy to 
enjoy himself in. There was the fishing on the river, shooting 
water-fowls above the dam, at the islands and the lake. Per- 



258 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

haps no boy ever enjoyed his departure from home better than 
I did when I first came to Fremont. 

But now see what this town is, — how it has grown. It has 
not increased to a first-class city, but it has become a pleasant 
home, so pleasant, so thriving that I rejoice to think that what- 
ever may be the result next fall it will be pleasant to re- 
turn to it when the contest is over. If defeated, I shall return to 
you oftener than if I go to the White House. If I go there I shall 
look forward with pleasure to the time when I shall be permitted 
to return to you, to be a neighbor with you again. And really 
we have cause to be satisfied with our home and the interests 
which the future has in store for us here. Larger cities always 
have strife and rivalry, from which we are free, and yet we are 
well situated between two commercial centers, the Eastern and 
Western, between which is the great highway of the world, and 
we can not but partake of their prosperity. Over the railroad 
passing through this place, or near it, will pass for all time to 
come the travel and trade of New York and San Francisco, of 
London and Pekin. Every town along this route partakes of 
the prosperity of this highway. Upper Sandusky, on the Pitts- 
burgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Eailroad, and Tiffin, that thriv- 
ing and beautiful city through which passes the Baltimore and 
Ohio Railroad, south of us, while along the lake shore passes the 
great northern division of the Lake Shore Road, making this 
route, as it were, the great artery of the world's travel, and we 
can abide with the prosperity that is to come in the futui*e. Those 
of our friends who travel in Europe return sometimes dissatis- 
fied, because there is a rawness in this country not seen in Eng- 
land and the older countries of Europe. But then the greatest 
happiness, as all of us know, in preparing a garden or a home 
is to see the improvements growing up under our hands. This 
is what we enjoy; and the change in Fremont from the time I 
first knew it till to-day gives me very great pleasure. 

There is another change which gives rise to mournful re- 
flections. When I came here in the year 1834, I became 
acquainted with honored citizens who are no longer living. 
There was, Mr. Mayor, your father, Rudolphus Dickinson, 
Thomas I. Hawkins, Judge Olmsted, Judge Howland, and, 
among others, that marvel of business energy, George Grant; 



APPENDIX. 259 



and I might go on giving name after name. But it is true that 
of all those I remember seeing on that first visit, not one is with 
us to-night. All who came with me, my uncle, my mother, and 
my sister, are gone. But this is the order of Providence. 
Events follow upon one another as wave follows wave upon the 
ocean. It is for each man to do what he can to make others 
happy. This is the prayer and this is the duty of life. Let us, 
my friends, in every position, undertake to perform this duty. 
For one, I have no reliance except that which Abraham Lincoln 
had when, on leaving Springfield, he said to his friends: "I go 
to Washington to assume a responsibility greater than that 
which has been devolved upon any one since the first president, 
and I beg you, my friends and neighbors, to pray that I may 
have that Divine assistance, without which I can not succeed, 
and with which I can not fail." In that spirit I ask you to deal 
with me. If it shall be the will of the people that this nomina- 
tion shall be ratified, I know I shall have your good wishes and 
your prayers. If, on the other hand, it shall be the will of the 
people that another shall assume these great responsibilities, let 
us see to it that we who shall oppose him give him a fair trial. 

My friends, I thank you for the interest you have taken in 
this reception, and that you have laid aside partisan feeling. 
There has been too much bitterness on such occasions in our 
land. Let us see to it that abuse and vituperation of the candi- 
date that shall be named at St. Louis do not proceed from our 
lips. Let us, in this centennial year, as we enter upon this sec- 
ond century of our existence, set an example of what a free and 
intelligent people can do. There is gathered at Philadelphia an 
assemblage representing nearly all the Nations of the world, 
with their arts and manufactures. We have invited com- 
petition, and they have come to compete with us, and with 
each other. We find that America stands well with the 
works of the world, as there exhibited. Let us show, in 
electing a chief magistrate of the Nation — the officer that is 
to be the first of forty or forty-five millions — let us show all 
those who visit us how the American people can conduct them- 
selves through a canvass of this kind. If it shall be in the 
spirit in which we have met to-night, if it shall be that just- 
ness and fairness shall be in all the discussions, it will com- 



2G0 LIFE OF IIUTI1ERFOPJ) B. HAYES. 

mend free institutions to the world in a way which they have 
never been commended before. 

Well, friends, 1 am detaining you too long. Therefore I close 
what I have to say by expressing the feelings of gratitude enter- 
tained by myself and family for the kindness and regard shown 
us by the people of Fremont. 

About the middle of the war, General Sherman lost a boy, 
named after himself, aged about thirteen years. He supposed 
that he belonged to the Thirteenth Infantry, and when they went 
out to drill and dress parade, he dressed in the dress of a ser- 
geant and marched with them. But he sickened and died. The 
regiment gathered about him, for he was to them a comi'ade — - 
dear as the child is loved by men who are torn away from 
the associations of home. General Sherman, the great soldier, 
was touched by it. He said it would be idle for him to try to 
express the gratitude which lie felt; but he said they held the 
key to the affections of himself and family, and if any of them 
should ever be in need, if they would mention that they be- 
longed to the Thirteenth Infantry at the time his boy died, they 
would divide with him the last blanket, and last morsel of food. 
It is in this spirit that I wish to express my thanks to the peo- 
ple of Fremont for the welcome they have given me. I bid you, 
my friends, good night. 



314-77 



